


Haunting Beira

by DNAGraceless



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-02 17:59:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 43,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17268800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DNAGraceless/pseuds/DNAGraceless
Summary: After a fatal Special Ops mission mission, Winter and James make a bad decision. A year later it comes back to haunt them, and they'll have to go outside the law to make things right and protect Vale from an unimaginable threat.This is a Qrowin story, only very brief Winter/Ironwood in the first and third chapters.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter contains a vaguely questionable sex scene

It had been a massacre.

In her six years of active experience, Winter had never seen anything like it. Every time she closed her eyes, she could see the carnage. Colleagues, friends, people she knew, people she had fought with and trusted- butchered. She could still feel Cyan’s warm blood on her face when she zoned out.

“Ms Schnee?”  
Winter flinched, looking over at the nurse standing beside her hospital bed.

“Ms Schnee, we’re going to be taking you off the morphine now.”  
Winter nodded and looked back out the window. The view was little more than the white storm that had hindered their landing, and Winter quickly fell back into her thoughts.

_Everything had been standard procedure. Winter had landed the ship, Cyan had sent out the sentinels to guard the perimeter._

_Everything was going fine._

_General Ironwood had arrived and sent out his personal specialists after Winter had secured the area._

_It was fine. It was_ safe.

_It was safe._

_Then the Grimm._

_Winter had never seen anything like them. They were twisted, gnarled, humanoid things, crawling down the abandoned buildings and out of the cracks in the wall with long black nails and glowing red eyes. Winter had thought they looked like vampires or zombies from the horror stories she would read as a child, immortal hollow men starving to death._

_The were faster than they anticipated. Winter barely had time to register what was happening before Cyan’s throat was being torn out, the blood exploding over Winter’s face and uniform._

_She was standing right next to her._

_She was standing right next to her. And Winter hadn’t stopped it._

“Ms Schnee?”  
Winter snapped out of her memories once again. This time the scene out the window was simple darkness.

“How are you feeling?” asked the Military officer. Winter had seen her around but didn’t think they had ever interacted.

Winter didn’t answer the idiotic question. The older woman sighed, writing something down on her scroll.  
“I’ve spoken with your doctor; you’ll be moved to the private military hospital with General Ironwood and the other specialist’s tomorrow morning once your aura has increased.”  The lady’s voice was cold and detached and she looked at Winter with dead eyes. Winter couldn’t help but feel she was blaming her for the attack.

Winter looked back at her, frowning slightly. “Other specialists?” Her voice was weaker than she thought, barely more than a whisper from her aching throat.

“Specialists Karloff, Boa, Leek and Jameson survived the attack. I’m afraid you five and the General and two soldiers were the only ones to survive the attack on Oak Hollow.”  
Winter nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. She’d figured at much, but having her fears confirmed sent a wave of heavy, cold dread through her body.

“How long has it been?”  
“Three days.”  
“Thank you.”  
The officer left without another word, and Winter felt… weak. She hadn’t been able to save her team. Three of the thirteen people _she_ had been charged with protecting had survived. Three, and Boa.

She felt angry tears burning a trail down her face and she rolled to her side, curling up as the pain burst from every part of her body. Her tears stained the pillow as she sobbed, angry at herself, the Grimm, _the world,_ that she had failed them. She had _failed_. She hadn’t done her job, and people had died.

She was no better than her father.

 

 

By the time Winter woke up, she had already been moved to the private hospital in Argus. Her aura was still low, but she got out of bed anyway. They had removed the medication, leaving her body sore and stiff. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep and hide from the world until she had the strength to face it. Unfortunately, as she stripped in the bathroom, she noticed the black ring on her finger.

“Fuck,” She muttered. She made a futile attempt to remove the ring, but only ended up hurting her finger. Her name and diagnosis appeared in bright blue writing around the ring as she touched it, as well as her location. The ring was a… precautionary device used for soldiers and specialists that had a habit of trying to take off before they had properly recovered. Winter would need to see a doctor to get it removed, and they would only do that after she was cleared.

“God damnit.”

Winter got dressed in the white shirt and black pants she had been supplied by the hospital and searched the room for her travel bag. It had been placed on the chair in the corner and Winter pressed her thumb to the fingerprint scanner, opening it. Inside was her sword, her backup scroll and a change of clothes. She pulled on a jacket and brushed her long hair as much as she could before her arms burned with effort and she finally gave up, dropping the hairbrush back in her bag. It had been a gift from Weiss.

Weiss.

Weiss who she had just finished training. Weiss who she had convinced to attend Beacon instead of Atlas. Weiss who had always looked up to her as her guiding light in the cold, dark Schnee manor. Weiss who had been Winter’s motivation to keep fighting.

Winter didn’t know how she could face her after such a failure.

Deciding she didn’t care if a doctor told her to get back to her room – they’d have to find her first (a bold statement, considering every movement hurt) – Winter headed out of the room in search of some answers. She wanted to know what had happened at Oak hollow. She wanted to know what those Grimm were and why the hell the reconnaissance huntsmen hadn’t spotted anything.

“Never should have hired freelancers,” Winter muttered. She’d been against the idea from the beginning, but Ironwood hadn’t been eager to send his men into Mistrali territory that hadn’t been touched since it’s abandonment ten years earlier. Lionheart had recommended several freelance huntsmen to do the initial scout – his _generous_ contribution to the ‘joint’ Atlas and Mistral mission.

Winter wasn’t sure how long she had been walking, but she hadn’t seen anyone she recognised, and her legs were on the verge of giving out. She took a seat on the hard plastic chairs in the hallway, leaning forward with her elbows on her legs, trying to catch her breath.  
“Jail break huh?”  
Winter raised her head, blinking blankly at the man sitting in the window sill opposite her. Karloff was a tall, tan man with dirty blonde hair. He had scars on his face and neck from his long career as a hunter in Vacuo before joining up in the specialist program. He was one of few in the unit’s entire history that had no actual huntsman training and had instead been recruited by Ironwood. Winter wandered if his streetwise style had helped him against the Grimm they had encountered.

“You’re up?”  
“Yep,” He said in a thick Vacuoan accent, blowing out a thick puff of cigarette smoke out the window. “Fairin’ better than you; you was half dead the last time I saw ya. I guess those rumours about you being impossible to keep in a hospital are true huh?”  
Winter held up her hand, showing the black ring. Karloff chuckled, holding up his hand to show his own tracker. He reached out the window, killing his cigarette on the outside of the building.  
“Come on kid, I’ll get ya some coffee.”  
Both specialists walked to the cafeteria, their movements slow and careful with their residual pain. Karloff got the coffee and they sat in a booth, Winter’s attention once again being drawn towards the morning flurry outside.

“This stuff is shite,” Karloff muttered, drinking almost the entire cup. “We need to get a Starbucks in here.”

The comment got the smallest smile from Winter. She looked over at him, looking it over and assessing the damage. He was handsome, in a rugged kind of way. He had scars littering his neck and face, over his lips and cheek and eyes which Winter would admit added to the dangerous and mysterious air she had seen him project when picking up tavern waiters and waitresses and intimidating vagabonds and bandits. She wandered what it was about men like that that people in small towns and bars found so alluring.

“Penny for your thoughts love?”  
Winter didn’t bother rolling her eyes at the ‘term of endearment’. Instead she leaned forward, folding her arms on the table.

“What did you see?” She asked, desperation tainting her voice.

“I saw the same thing you did.” He said vaguely.

“You were still standing when I went down. What happened?”  
Karloff worked his jaw. Staring down at his almost empty coffee. “I… I don’t know. I don’t know what they were. I never seen anything like ‘em before. It was like a swarm, they were on us before…”  
Winter nodded slightly, closing her eyes tightly and trying to ward of the images flashing in her mind. “Was… did you see who else… made it?”  
“I think Leek and Boa, and Jameson. I don’t know who else. Jameson’s already tried to get out and got slapped with a tracker. Figures they got the three most stubborn specialists in here at once. Course there should be more,” he added to himself, clenching his jaw.

Winter sipped her coffee. It was weak and lukewarm, but it gave her enough of a pick-me-up to keep her eyes open.

“Have you heard anything about the report?”  
“General Ironwood and Boa gave their reports this morning.” He sent his paper cup spinning, Winter suspected to see if his aura was high enough to use his semblance – he was hardly the showing off type. “Leek just got out of surgery, she won’t give hers until this afternoon. They want us to give ours before we leave the hospital.”  
“Wonderful,” Winter said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. She wasn’t looking forward to reliving the mission.

“The doctor’s coming around tomorrow morning,” Karloff said, downing the rest of his coffee, “I suggest you stay off your feet if you want to get out of here anytime soon.”  
He slid out of his seat and walked off, his footsteps echoing in the white hall. 

Winter leaned back against the plastic cushions. Memories of the swift battle kept popping up in her mind, her breathing becoming shaky and painful. She grabbed her wrist, trying to stop the shaking as she got her breathing under control.

“Ma’am? Are you okay?”  
Winter opened her eyes, exhaustion setting into her bones. She looked up at the young woman looking down at her with concern shining in her bright eyes.

“I’m fine,” Winter said weakly. She slid out of her seat and headed back to her room. Swallowing her pride, she took the elevator up to her floor. She was asleep on her feet when she finally reached her room and fell unconscious as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 

  
It took Winter a few minutes to wake up. She may have drifted off again, but finally she was sitting up. She raised her hand to rub her eyes and noticed the tracker.

Like a truck, the memories slammed into her. Biting her lip and taking a deep breath, Winter fought the tears for her fallen friends.  
_Cyan_.  
Winter took a shuddering breath, blinking back the tears and throwing off the covers, grabbing her only other change of clothes and heading into the bathroom, turning on the shower. She made the conscious decision to avoid looking at her body and stepped under the water. It stung, but it was the first time she’d felt something other than grief since she’d woken up the previous day.

She didn’t realise she was crying until she turned off the water.

Patting herself dry, Winter finally took in her battle wounds.

The first thing she noticed was an angry red scar from the top of her hip to the back of her knee. There was another from her shoulder blade to the small of her back and several littering her abdomen.

The tears started again, and she angrily wiped them away, dressing in a long-sleeved shirt and pants.

She couldn’t remember the last time she cried. Maybe after her parents had kicked her out. It was the last time she’d lost anything she cared about.

Composing herself, she grabbed her clothes and headed back into her room, shoving them into her bag.

“Good shower?”  
Winter almost screamed, pulled her dagger from the bag and spinning to face the voice.

“ _Calm down_ ,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Winter glared at the woman lying on her hospital bed. She put the dagger back. “I thought you were under surveillance.”

“I am.” She held up her hand, the bright white ring conflicting with her dark olive skin.

“What are you doing here?”  
“I got us some real coffee.” She gestured to the cup on the bedside table.

“Oh. Thank you.” Winter took a drink of the coffee, grateful for the warmth she could feel spreading through her body.  
“It’s good isn’t it?”  
“Yes.” Winter took the seat beside the bed. “What are you doing here Jameson?”  
“I got to the coffee shop on the corner and they dragged me back.” She said, sipping her own coffee.

Winter couldn’t help but notice how put together Jameson looked. She was lying in her jeans and green button up and blue jacket. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and there were no visible scars on her copper skin. She certainly didn’t look like she’d just pulled herself through the massacre Winter and Karloff had.

“You seen the General yet?”  
“No, why?”  
“Figured you’d be hanging around outside his room after what happened.”  
Winter rolled her eyes, giving the other woman a look.

“I didn’t see what happened.” She said softly.

Jameson was silent, resting her arms on her stomach.  
“I’m sorry about Cyan. I know you guys were close. How are you coping?”  
Winter shrugged weakly, her eyes downcast at her coffee. The other specialist sat up, folding one leg after the other and hanging the other over the side of the bed.

“I’m really sorry Winter.” She said softly. “You can talk to me about it if you want.”

“It’s… I don’t know. I’ve lost people I’ve been responsible for, but I… never someone I cared about so much.”  
“She was pretty great,” Jameson smiled. “Her sister’s a nurse in Argus. Must be hard on her.”  
“I can’t imagine,” Winter said weakly. It was a scenario she didn’t even want to think about.

“The General spent the last few days getting most of his prosthetics replaced.” She expertly changed the subject. “one of those things swiped at him and it just… fell apart. I still don’t know how we managed to get out of there alive.”  
“Can’t tell if it was good luck or bad.”  
“Depends who you ask.”  
Winter looked up at her. “Does it?”

 

 

 

Winter had passed out after using up most of her recovered aura on summoning Grimm and her glyph. There was no point to it, but she felt powerful, even as her aura trained, as she conjured the white and blue monsters in front of her.

One of those _things_ were in her inventory now, but she couldn’t bring herself to summon it.

It came to her in her dreams that night. It crawled up her bed until it was right in her face, opening it’s impossibly long mouth, it’s shrill scream piercing into her very soul.

Winter woke up with a start, sweat running down her forehead as she gasped for breath.

The day was painfully slow and painful in general as Winter relived the mission to write her report. The only silver lining was that her aura was mostly replenished.  
“Looks like you’ll be heading back to Atlas with us tomorrow,” Jameson said, walking in in yet another new outfit.  
“How many clothes do you pack for a job?” Winter asked.

“Enough. Here.” She held out another coffee and Winter raised an eyebrow.

“Did you make another jail break?”  
“I ordered it and paid a nurse to bring it in for me. Do you want it or not?”  
Winter took it. “Thank you.”  
“You’re welcome. You packed?”  
Winter rolled her eyes. “You’re hilarious.”  
“When are they taking off these stupid rings off?”  
“I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning.” Winter answered.

“Ugh, we have to wait until tomorrow?”  
“They probably just don’t want us making a break for it until they can check us over.”

“But we’re fine. My aura is almost full. It would be if they didn’t keep me on painkillers the whole freaking time.”

“What would you even do if you could leave? We’re in Argus.”  
“I could go for some real food. A night in a room that doesn’t reek of disinfectant.”

“It’s just one more day.” Winter placated.

“I hate hospitals.”  
“I know. And they know,” Winter held up the black ring still clinging onto her finger.

Jameson huffed, slumping down in the chair. Both women were happy to let her sulk in silence for a while.

“We’re gonna have to face it when we get back huh?” she said softly. Winter looked over at her, and Jameson turned to meet her eyes. Without another word from either of them, Jameson stood and walked out of the room.

 

 

By that night, Winter was well and truly over her medically induced captivity. She spent exactly three and a half hours trying to get to sleep before giving up and throwing off the covers. She got dressed and checked the hallway was clear. There was no sign of anyone, but the long hallways illuminated only by the soft glow from an occasional bulb unnerved her. She’d originally intended to find the cafeteria, maybe some tea could soothe her frayed nerves. Instead she found herself on a higher floor; the private wing of the hospital reserved for only the highest priority cases.

General Ironwood was up there.

Apparently, he was the only one up there, she thought, as she noticed the solitary light in the furthest room.

Her steps were strong but hesitant as she walked down the hall, coming to a stop by the door. She hesitated, her hand shaking slightly. Taking a deep breath, she knocked twice.

“What?” Came a sharp call from inside. Winter gripped the handle, turning and pushing the door open.  
Ironwood looked like hell. His hair was a mess, he was pale, and it looked like he hadn’t shaved since the mission.

“Sir?”  
He looked over at her, his blue eyes seemed darker than usual; clouded over with the anger and other nasty emotions tearing their way through his body.

What was left of it.

“Winter. I’m glad to see you’re alright.”  
Winter couldn’t help but hear the defeat tainting his words. Winter was alright, and Karloff and Jameson and a handful of others were alright. It seemed a small comfort compared to all they had lost.

“I am,” Winter lied. “And yourself?”  
Ironwood scoffed derisively, rubbing her shoulder where the metal met flesh. “I’ll be fine. The others?”  
“Jameson and Karloff are recovering well,” Winter answered, automatically slipping into a loose Parade rest stance, “they’re both scheduled to head back to Atlas tomorrow. Boa was sent ahead with the earlier flight this morning. Leek will be sent back once she wakes up.”

 “I thought she was in recovery?” Ironwood asked, slowly moving away from the window.

“She slipped into a coma after her surgery. Apparently, there were complications.” Winter felt an intense sadness sink into her as she thought about her colleague. She’d always been fond of Leek.

“Fucking hell,” he muttered, rubbing his tired eyes. Winter couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. For all the loss she had experience and blame that would be placed on her, he’d have it a hundred times worse. He had handpicked his specialists, most of them former students he himself had trained and guided. People he had known since they were still teenagers. People whose family and friends would place the blame on him for their deaths.

Winter wandered if, having known him since she was a young girl, her death would affect him. If she would be more than a handful of guilt thrown on the mountain that was crushing him. It was selfish, but she hoped it would. It seemed too miserable a testament to her solitary life to have her sister be the only one who would mourn her. She often thought about who would care if she was dead after a mission went bad. She wanted someone to care.

She wanted him to care.

She wanted to be important to him like he was to her.

“I’m sorry sir,” Was all she could offer. “I should have organised proper reconnaissance.”  
“That wasn’t on you. Leonardo’s men failed the mission and those men will take the blame for their failure. Don’t put that on yourself Winter.”  
She loved when he said her name; their professional relationship made any personal comment or action a hundred times more intimate to her. Winter both loved and hated how he made her feel.

“Like you’re doing?”  
“That’s different,” He snapped, standing from his spot on the edge of his bed. It was still made; he wasn’t sleeping.

“How?”  
“Because I was in charge. I shouldn’t have brought my men in to dangerous territory based on Lionheart’s reports. I should have sent in our own scouts and made sure it was done right!”

Winter was silent, letting him calm his somewhat erratic breathing. She took a tentative step closer.

“We put our faith in someone we should have been able to trust,” She said softly, putting her hand on his shoulder, “He said the town was abandoned; this wasn’t your fault.”

Ironwood moved so fast she didn’t have time to react before he slammed her into the wall, his hands firmly gripped her shoulders, pinning her to the cold stone.

“I should have stopped it!” He yelled angrily. “My men, our soldiers _died_ because I didn’t do my job right! I trusted Lionheart, I ordered the job, this was my fault! Those people died because of me!”  
Winter held her breath, eyes wide in shock as he cried out his guilt. He kept her there, and she didn’t dare move, simply watching as he tried to get his breathing and emotions in check.

She saw the fight leave his eyes, his shoulders sag and his grip on her upper arms slacken as he dropped his head.

“I’m sorry Winter.” He said weakly, “I’m so sorry.”

Winter didn’t realise what she was doing, and didn’t know if she would stop herself, but she stepped forward, just enough to wrap her arms around his shoulders. He hugged her back, his arms tight around her and he rested his head on her shoulder. She could feel his body shaking as his emotions took control, wracked him and slowly, slowly began to bleed out as she stroked his dark hair.

“You don’t have to apologise,” She said softly. “Not to me.”  
James pulled back, and she worried she had crossed a line. But he just looked at her, moving her hand from around her waist and brushed her loose hair out of her face, stroking her cheek.

 

Looking back, Winter knew that was the moment she should have stopped it. It never should have gone further than two friends and colleagues comforting each other after a devastating loss.

But she didn’t stop it.

 

She didn’t stop him when he kissed her. It had been nice at first – sweet, even – but like a bushfire it quickly grew out of control.

She couldn’t remember exactly when he pushed her down onto the bed. She couldn’t remember him pulling her clothes off or discarding his own.

Battle she could handle. A fight she could assess the situation and strike in less than a second. But this was something she wasn’t experienced in, this was something she didn’t even know if she wanted or not.

She remembered his kisses growing harder and more desperate, the desire to feel something other than pain and self-loathing making him undone and reckless as he left his mark on her body; on her neck, her chest, her thighs.

She didn’t know if it was what she wanted, but she didn’t stop him when he pushed a finger inside her, then another, and another. She bit her lip, letting him have his way with her, trying desperately to get her thoughts in order as he sucked a hickey onto her neck.

 _You want this_ , a voice told her, _and this will probably be your only chance_

_No, you don’t! You’re not some tavern girl he can use to fuck out his anger! You can’t just let him use you like this and he wouldn’t if he actually cared about you._

Winter closed her eyes and shut out the argument in her head, trying to enjoy the feeling of one hand between her legs and the other on her breast.

But it hurt. She didn’t dare give any sign of her… inexperience in the bedroom, afraid he would stop.

 

Looking back, Winter wandered if she was more worried that he would stop, or that he wouldn’t.

 

The only ‘indication’ he gave that he was going further was a bruising kiss as he pushed inside her. Winter broke the kiss, gasping in pain as he entered her. It was more uncomfortable than she thought it would be.

His hands moved to her hips, gripping painfully tight as he pulled out, thrusting all the way back into her. Winter cried out in pain, gripping the sheets below her. She still didn’t say anything.

He pulled out again. It felt like each thrust was harder than the last until she felt like she was being torn in half. James hovered over her, one hand on her hip and the other on the bed beside her head as he used his recently recovered strength to fuck out his overwhelming emotions into Winter.

She didn’t know how long he’d used her before the discomfort of pleasure swept through her body. It wasn’t until he went stiff above her, his breathing jagged as he gripped the sheet beside her head that she realised they weren’t using protection.

He climbed off of her, lying down on the bed beside her. Winter had never felt so exposed as she had lying there, James drifting off beside her, both completely naked and his come slipping out of her.

She didn’t move until she was sure he was asleep, quickly dressing and fixing her hair before getting out of there, making a beeline for her room. She walked with a limp as the pain began to spread between her hips.

 

It was almost two in the morning when Winter got back to her room, but she spent another hour in the shower, scrubbing away any sign of her… meeting with James.

Hickeys and bite marks littered her thighs, her neck and her chest. Red hand prints were clearly visible on her hips and wrists from where he had gripped her and held her to the bed.

 _What the hell just happened_ , she thought to herself, getting into bed. She just needed to sleep it off. If she could get some sleep, get back to Atlas they could deal with the mission’s aftermath and talk about it. They could pretend it never happened.

 

 

Winter had been immensely relieved when she had awakened the next morning to see the hickeys gone from her neck. There were still several on her chest and the handprints on her hips had gone from an angry red to a faded black and blue. Her left hip had it worse from his prosthetic hand, but she could cover it with clothes and pretend it wasn’t there until it faded.

Sitting with Jameson had provided a good excuse to avoid James on the flight back to Atlas. The three had handed in their very detailed reports and had been excused. Standard procedure was three days off after a hospital stay, but Winter had a feeling they wouldn’t be taking the whole seventy-two hours.

 _Figures_ , she thought, sharing a cab to her apartment with Jameson, _the one time I need the time off_.

“See ya later Winter,” Jameson said with a half-hearted wave as Winter slipped out. She retrieved her bag from the boot and headed up to her apartment.

The room looked like a hotel, and the only indication someone permanently lived there was the picture of herself and her sister by her bed and the picture of her grandparents above the fireplace. Nevertheless, she had missed it. Her home was her safe place; it was the one place she was in total control, and control was what she craved.

There were no Grimm, no men, no sympathetic or accusatory glares. This was Winter’s castle and she was queen.

Food had been her first call to serve, followed by a long bath. She almost fell asleep in the warm water, before a _ding_ from her computer woke her up.

The possibility of it being Weiss was the only thing that got her up and out of the bath, pulling on loose pants and a t-shirt, taking a seat at her desk and opening her emails. Sure enough, she had three missed emails from Weiss.

She opened the first, leaning forwards lightly to read.

 

_Dear Winter_

_You’ll never believe what came in the mail today. My acceptance letter to Beacon! I’m so excited. I’ve been practising my swordsmanship for three hours every day just like you did. I’m still having trouble with my summoning. Maybe we could talk about it the next time you come over? I hope you’re doing well and look forward to your next visit._

_Love, Weiss._

Winter smiled softly, glancing over at the picture of Winter and Weiss on her table. She was fourteen, Weiss was six or seven. Winter had just won her ballet competition and Weiss was hugging her, both beaming at the camera as Klein took the picture, the bouquet of flowers Weiss had picked for her gripped in Winter’s hand.

Winter turned back to the computer and opened the next email.

 

_Dear Winter_

_Father said you’re very busy with work, so you won’t be able to come over soon. Maybe we could meet up when you’re in Vale? I know you travel a lot, but I would really like to see you again; my fighting has gotten so much better since you started training me. I know it’s hard to find time with your schedule but if you ever have free time I’ll be around._

_Love, Weiss._

_Dear Winter_

_I heard about the mission in Oak hollow. They said General Ironwood lead the mission with a group of specialists. Where you there? Are you okay? Please get back to me as soon as possible. I hope you’re alright._

_Love Weiss._

Winter closed the third email and leaned back in her seat. She picked up her scroll, pulling up her sisters contact and hesitating. Should she just send an email? That way she could avoid all unnecessary and painful questions Weiss was sure to ask.

But after four days of worry, Winter decided she owed Weiss that much.

She pressed her contact and held the scroll to her ear, her anxiety building as she listened to the ringing.

“Winter!” Weiss cried in greeting. “Are you okay? I’m so glad you called me I was so worried about you.”  
“I’m fine,” Winter answered, holding her phone away from her head as her sister freaked out into the receiver.

“What happened?”  
Winter hesitated, “It… there were unforeseen complications. Some people messed up and…  and the mission was compromised.”  
“I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”  
“Not really,” Winter sighed, moving over to lie on her bed.

“Well, I’m here if you change your mind.”  
“I know. How is your training going?” She changed the subject.

“It’s good.”  
“Just good?”  
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk?”  
“Positive.”  
“Okay. My fighting is fine. I actually just started packing for Beacon.”  
“You don’t start at Beacon for another month.”  
“I know, but I still need to decide what I’m going to bring and how much dust I’ll need before my orders start and I need to know what to go shopping for. I can’t wear most of my things because it’s so much warmer in Vale.”  
“What a hard life you have,” Winter joked. She could practically feel Weiss rolling her eyes.  
“I’m just being practical. If you want to leave your packing to the last minute than that’s your prerogative.”

“I’m in the military Weiss; last minute packing abilities are basically a requirement.”  
“Fine, but all of your clothes are going to be wrinkled.”  
Winter couldn’t help but laugh. Weiss made her happy, whether she was trying or not.

“I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.”  
“Neither can I,” Weiss sighed. “I was up all night trying to summon and now I’ve got all this packing to do. I think I’ll just make someone else do it.”  
“You want someone else organising and dictating what you’ll take to Vale? Another kingdom? For a year?”

Weiss was silent on the other end of the line, then she sighed. “Fine, I’ll do it myself.”  
Winter smiled. Her sister might not like it but learning not to rely on servants for everything was for her own good. She wouldn’t have Klein or her maids to help her at Beacon.

The line was quiet, and Winter’s smiled slowly faded.  
“Weiss?”  
“Yes?”  
“I love you.”  
“I love you too. Are… you sure everything is okay?”  
Winter blinked back tears.  
“Everything is fine. We’ll talk later,”  
“Okay. Goodbye. Take care of yourself Winter.”  
“You too. Goodbye,” Winter hung up before she could get emotion. Setting the phone on the charger, Winter walked over to turn off the light, her bed was calling to her.

That was when she noticed she had a new email, delivered just seconds ago.  
Sitting down she opened it and scanned the contents as anger, disbelief and hurt surged through her body.

 _What the_ hell _is this?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a small non-consensual scene starting after "She dreamt of James that night." but it's in italics so you can skip past it if you want

Winter was up at six am the next morning. Donning her uniform - which she wished was just a little bit less tight - she strapped on her sabre and drove the short distance to the military base.

Being a specialist didn’t necessarily mean you could just stride into the General’s office whenever you felt like it. However, being one of the only surviving specialists in an incident the General was still recovering from opened more doors.

“Specialist Schnee,” Said the lady at the reception desk, “Your scheduled off for the next three days?”  
“It’s a last-minute emergency.” Winter said sternly, her anger growing with every step she took closer to James’ office.

“Does this have anything to do with the mission in Oak Hallow?” The secretary asked, unnerved by the anger radiating from the young specialist.

“That’s exactly what I need to find out.” Winter snapped.

“I’ll see if he’s available.”  
Winter chewed her bottom lip, trying to calm herself as she waited.

_I’m going to rip his goddamn arm off and shove it up his fucking –_

“The General will see you now.”  
“Thank you,” She threw over her shoulder, storming over to the elevator. She scanned her identification and stepped inside, holding her formal stance until the doors closed.

“ _UGH!_ ” Winter gripped her hair, pulling at it, before taking a swing at the wall. It left the slightest dent and she didn’t know if that made her happy or not.

Taking a slow, deep breath, Winter pushed her hair back into place, slipping into parade rest as the steel doors opened.

The white walls of Ironwood’s office seemed to be glaring her down, but Winter’s steps didn’t falter until she came to a stop in front of the large silver desk. Ironwood looked up from the paper’s in front of him, leaning back slightly in his seat.   
“Specialist Schnee, I wasn’t expecting you until Tuesday.”  
Winter bit back the first response that came to mind; she planned to make it past the first minute without losing her job or being demoted for insubordination.

“May I speak freely sir?”  
If she didn’t know him so well, she would have missed the slight hesitation.

“Of course,” He nodded.

Winter pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, unfolding it and slamming it down on the desk. James leaned forward enough to read the paper. It was the email he had sent her last night.

“What the hell is this?”  
“Winter–”

“You’re sending me to Vacuo?”  
“Gale’s huntsmen specialise in researching Grimm; if anyone has information on what we saw, it was them.”  
“You’re sending me to Vacuo on a _hunch_?”  
“You saw the Grimm, if they have information, you’ll need to identify them.”  
“So send Boa or Karloff or Jameson; they all have more experience in Vacuo and work better with other huntsmen.”  
“Winter, I need you to do this. I trust you.”  
Winter glared at him. “Bullshit. Is this about the other night?”  
Ironwood stiffened and refused to meet her eye. “That has nothing to do with this decision.”  
“So it’s just a coincidence I’m the only specialist you’re sending out of the country?”  
“Other specialists will get assignments,”  
“But you had to ship me off the second things get… hard?”  
He gave her a stern, unamused look. “Specialist Schnee-”

“Don’t ‘specialist Schnee’ me. I think we’re a bit past that, _James_.”  
He took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes as he exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry about the other night.” He said, soft and sincere. “It shouldn’t have happened. It was a moment of weakness.”  
Winter stood up, crossing her arms across her chest.

“However, one has nothing to do with the other. The others may have more experience, but I trust you; you get results, and you get them fast. We don’t have a lot of time here Winter; people want answers.”  
Winter glared at him, letting out a sharp breath. “Fine, but I have a condition.”  
Ironwood gestured for her to continue.

“We need to talk when I return.”  
He nodded slowly. “I give you my word.” He opened his top drawer, bringing out a file and dropping it towards her. Winter picked it up and opened it.

“You leave tomorrow. There’s a military airship that will take you to Vale, from there you’ll take a civilian airship to Shade. You’ll meet Gale to check in and she’ll show you the information they have on the Grimm as well as introduce you to several witnesses she claims has seen the Grimm we described.”  
“Who are the witnesses?”  
“A man who claims his village was overrun by the Grimm. They came in the night, left no other survivors. It matches the story of Oak Hollow, except it was a much smaller village,”  
“And people survived this attack,” Winter finished, closing the file.   
Ironwood nodded, “You leave at 0500 hours.”  
She nodded and stood at attention.

He dismissed her without an upward glance, and she slipped the email into the file, returning to the elevator.

 

 

The storm outside the airport was getting worse. Winter wandered if her flight would be grounded, but sure enough at exactly 0510 she boarded the ship, taking her seat by the window. Eight other soldiers were aboard, but Winter didn’t bother making small talk, instead she headed to the back, locking her bag in the overhead compartment and sat, looking out the window.

With the combination of the recent trauma and stubborn desire to keep her mind off of James, Winter felt her mind drifting to her fallen teammate. Pulling out her scroll she checked her messages from the previous day.

 

Jameson:

_The memorial is going up in two weeks_

_Their names will be added to the wall in a ceremony_

_Ironwood is giving a speech and everything_

 

She switched to the news report from the previous day,  watching as pictures and names of the confirmed fallen specialists, she watched as the muted presentation solemnly listed off the names to the public.

_Gregory Crux_

_Yelaina Forrest_

_Akihito Tachibana_

_Pearl Kim_

_Amaya Meek_

_Cyan La Rue_

 

Winter paused the video, staring at the picture of Cyan they had pulled from her file. Her shoulder length blue hair was straight and loose, bringing out the colour of her eyes. Winter always thought she had such beautiful eyes. Bright; unlike her own dull, cold blue.

Cyan had a family. She had a sister and a mother and a step-father who had raised her since she was just a few years old. Winter had met her parents once at a ceremony; her mother clearly wasn’t a huge fan of the Schnee family, being from Mantel, but her father had been kind and patient, encouraging the friendship. Cyan didn’t have a lot of friends. Winter liked her parents.  

Closing her Scroll, Winter leaned back against the seat, closing her eyes and trying desperately to catch any bit of sleep she could before her no doubt long and draining mission.

  
It felt like she’d only closed her eyes for a minute ago when the announcement came over the intercom.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we will be landing in Vale in fifteen minutes; please take your seat and secure your seatbelts.”  
Winter clipped on her seat belt and looked out the window. With the time difference it was night time already.

The airport was scarcely populated. Winter retrieved her luggage and exited the airport quickly, catching a cab to her hotel. Forgoing dinner, Winter headed straight upstairs, dropping her luggage under her bed and stripping to her underwear, turning the air-conditioning on high and getting into bed.

Sleep evaded her, and, not wanting to slip into a depressive mess before a job, her thoughts were pushed into a corner with only one other place to go.

She didn’t know if she’d go as far as to say she had feelings for James, but there had been something there. Admiration certainly. If she choked down her pride, she might be able to admit to infatuation. She’d felt a rare bit of excitement when he would show his faith in her; giving her priority assignments or trusting her in positions of leadership. It made her giddy when he would say her name or show her his real, human side, the part of him that wasn’t a stoic General in moments of coincidental privacy.

Okay, she thought, maybe there had been feelings.

But now she didn’t know what she felt. She’d bought the morning after pill on the way to her apartment in Atlas as well as several pregnancy tests. She’d never had a pregnancy scare before. She never imagined she would with him.

Looking back, she wandered if she would have stopped it if things were different. If they had been in his office or if she had just had more time to think over her options.

But she hadn’t. She hadn’t thought, and she had let him use her like some cheap whore to pound out his anger into until he could pass out, leaving her feeling exposed and dirty. She had trusted him, admired him, and he had taken her when she was vulnerable and emotional. Winter held back tears, gripping her pillow as she realised, she’d been used by one of the few people she dared put her trust in, someone who had made her feel safe, and had given her a purpose in life. James had used her for his own ends, not caring how she had felt, not caring how it affected her. Then he sent her off on a wild goose chase in _Vacuo_ the second she was discharged.  Winter couldn’t help but make the comparison to her father. The second he had realised she had run out of usefulness she had been disinherited and disowned. He’d never really cared about her. She’d wandered if James would pull back now. But James hadn’t pulled back, he had sent her away.

 

Winter wandered what the hell was so wrong with her that no one could love her without a motivation.

 

 

Shade academy was, in Winter’s opinion, misnamed. There were few outside spaces between the gates and the main building the were protected from the fierce rays of the afternoon sun.

“Miss Schnee, Headmistress Gale will see you now.” The secretary said stiffly. Winter wandered if she was opposed to an Atlas specialist in Vacuo jurisdiction or if the young lizard faunus hated her personally.

“Thank you,” Winter said, walking over to the elevator. She headed to the fourth floor, relishing in the air-conditioning.

“Miss Schnee, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Gale said, walking around her desk and over to Winter. “I trust your flight was pleasant?”  
“It was fine,” Winter said with a polite smile, shaking the woman’s hand. Dora Gale was the youngest of the four headmaster, less than twenty years Winter’s senior and her complete opposite. Her skin was a dark, flawless umber and her short, straight black hair fell to her shoulders. She was probably just a few centremitres taller than Weiss and her skin was covered in scales. She was an armadillo girdled lizard faunus, if Winter recalled correctly. She looked up at Winter with thick horn-rimmed glasses.

“James said you wanted to go over any documents we have on Grimm discovered in the last thirteen months?” She asked, leading Winter to the elevator and towards the library.   
Winter frowned slightly. “I was under the impression I was going over all of your research?”  
“You’re welcome to; however, we upload all of our data to the Atlas, Vale, and Mistral servers every eighteen months, so you should have all the information in your online files from earlier.”  
“I was told files had to be requested and cleared by the country of origin to access them?”  
“Usually, however the General’s and headmasters have clearance to access them without all the paperwork and such.”  
Winter didn’t know why she was surprised.

“Thank you. Ironwood mentioned there was also a witness?”  
“Yes.” Gale turned back to her desk, looking for several files. “Marshall Duchamp’s village was wiped out by a Grimm that matches your description; he’ll be in first thing tomorrow morning to go over his statement with you. We also have one of our Huntsmen, Mickel Sabra, who has claimed to have encountered the Grimm in south-east Vacuo. We can arrange transit for you if you’re interested.”  
“Excuse me?”  
“Sabra is currently working in the north. He’s willing to meet you in Xing if you’d like to hear his statement.”  
Winter nodded, taking the files Gale held out for her. “Thank you. When’s the earliest I’ll be able to head out?”  
“Sabra is set to reach Xing in two days; Xing is our largest city outside of the capital, so several other huntsmen will be on the ship transporting dust cartridges. You’ll be able to catch a ride with them. I’ll clear you for flight and send you the details.”  
“Thank you.”

“This is our library,” Gale said, gesturing to the large wooden doors standing open before them. She led the way inside and up the stairs in the centre of the room to the second floor.

“We keep our notes in the restricted sections, only accessible by our third and fourth years and professors,” She swiped her identification. “Have you ever been to Vacuo, Miss Schnee?”  
“Yes,” Winter nodded, “However, I’ve only been to the academy once before.”

“Well, there’s a map of the school in the hallway, and the bathrooms are downstairs. Feel free to call if there’s anything you need.”  
Winter nodded, “Thank you.”  
Gale left her to her work and Winter began going through the journals, pulling her notebook out of her bag and taking notes. She photocopied the pictures of the various monstrous Grimm sketched or photographed into the books.

She worked until the sun set, then worked some more. It wasn’t until her eyes began to burn and her hands cramped that she realised how late it was.

Taking note of where she was up to, Winter returned everything to it’s place and packed her bag, making her exit from the library and the school.

 

  
She dreamt of James that night.

 

_They were together in a room she didn’t recognise, and he had her pinned to the bed. He’d pushed aside her clothes just enough to grope her, his fingers harsh and painful inside her and on her breast. Winter hadn’t been able to stifle her cries of pain, so he had done it for her, his metal hand pressed hard over her mouth, keeping her jaw shut as he thrust inside her. His thrusts became harder and sharper, uncomfortable but Winter could feel herself being forced to the edge as his hands ran over her, squeezing her breasts and hips, sending small bursts of pleasure between her legs before they were wiped out by the pain of his movements._

_She felt it when he came inside her. It burned her from the inside out. James rolled off her, leaving her untethered and alone._

 

She was back early the next morning. The sun was barely up when she was back in the library, finishing up her notes. Getting lost into the pages of Grimm, she was almost late for her meeting with Marshall DuChamp.     
“Mr DuChamp?” Winter asked, walking into the conference room at nine thirty on the dot.

“Yes,” The elderly man held out his hand, shaking Winters.

“I’m specialist Schnee with the Atlasian Military. I just need to ask you a few questions about the attack on your village if that’s alright?”  
“That’s what I’m here for,” He sighed, retaking his seat. Winter wandered how this man was the only survivor. DuChamp had to be at least sixty with wrinkled skin and a big, bushy moustache, his salt and pepper – mostly salt – hair had previously been brushed back but was now sticking up in tufts.

“Would you mind telling me briefly what happened that night?”  
“Well,” Marshall started, “I’d gone fishin’ with my boy Henry. We’d been gone, four days, maybe five. We had to head home cus Henry was missing him mama; it was his first trip away from home. We got ta the top of the hill near the town and I, I knew somethin’ wasn’t right. It was quiet. It was too quiet, ya know? It wasn’t that late. People still shoulda been out, there shoulda been lights. I told Henry to wait while I went down to the village,”  
“You went to investigate on your own?” Winter asked, growing more and more surprised this man was alive by the second.  
“Young lady I may not look it now but I as a hell of a huntsmen back in my day,” He held up his thick walking stick. He turned the lion’s head at the top and it transformed into a double barrel shotgun.   
“Impressive.” Said Winter.

“You’re damn right it’s impressive.”  
“So you headed towards the village?”  
“I headed down there, quiet as a mouse. Got to the edge of the village and…” He stopped, sighing sadly. “And I knew. I knew something evil had been there. I ran around the perimeter, trying to find my house. I had to… I had to see if my wife and my little girl was okay. That was when I saw them.”  
Winter listened intently to the recount.

“They were… almost like, a pit of snakes. Just crawling over each other. It looked like the walls were moving. I tried to stay calm, tryna figure out how many there were, if I could take ‘em. Then it... one of them looked up at me. It had the most unholy screech. And I ran. I turned, and I ran back to Henry and I keep going until we got to the next down. They sent in Huntsmen, but by the time they got there the Grimm were gone.” He paused for a minute, tightly gripping his cane. “I… heard them describe it on the news as a bloodbath. I shoulda been there for my girls,” He added softly. Winter’s heart ached for the man.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” She said softly. Clearing her throat, she looked down at her notes. “Did your son witness any of this?”  
“No; I made sure he was far enough away.”

“And your rendering in the files are accurate?”  
“As accurate as I could get it.” He nodded. “What’s the Atlas military want with this anyway.”  
Winter hesitated. “There was an attack recently. We believe the Grimm that attacked your village is the same responsible for the disappearance of the inhabitants of Oak Hollow in Mistral.”

Marshall nodded slowly. “Did ya see ‘em?”  
Winter hesitated once again and nodded.

“The screams,” Marshall said lowly, leaning forward at the table. “It took me a long time to figure it out. The scream was my wife. It was my girls. That’s the scream. That’s why it stays with you.”  
Winter stayed silent, dread setting into her bones once again.

“I think that’ll be all.” Winter said. “I’ll be in contact if we have any other questions.”  
Marshall nodded and stood. “Glad I could help Miss Schnee.”  
A secretary escorted Marshall out and Winter took a moment, leaning back in her chair and taking a deep breath.

The screams. She had assumed they had been Cyan’s, or Kim’s or Forrest or Crux’s or anyone of the number of victims they had slain.

But they weren’t. It had been the Grimm.

“Miss Schnee?”  
Winter snapped out of her thoughts, looking up at Gale standing in the doorway.

“Are you alright?”  
“I’m fine,” Winter gave her standard answer, packing up her papers and getting ready to leave.

“General Ironwood just contacted me. Professor Ozpin has sent in an agent to assist Sabra with the job in Xing; the General would like you to share your findings and expects your full cooperation in working with him.”

“Thank you,” Was all she said. She headed straight back to her hotel, typing up her notes and sending them to Ironwood before packing her bags to leave the next day.

 

Feeling the cabin fever set in, Winter stepped out into the cool night air to in search of dinner. She’d forgotten how chilly Vacuo could get at night.

She’d settled for fried rice and soup; as it was her first meal since arriving in Vacuo, she didn’t have the energy to continue searching and settled for the first option that didn’t unnerve her.

“Have a good night beautiful,” The server said, winking at her. Winter rolled her eyes, taking her food and walking through the park until she found a vacant table.

Checking her scroll, Winter ignored the call from her mother – no doubt another drunken rant about how Winter had ruined her life – and opened the email from Weiss.

_Dear Winter_

_Father just informed me we will be attending the ceremony for the fallen specialists and soldiers. Will you be there? We could have lunch or something if you’d like?_

_I hope you’re taking care of yourself out there._

_I’ll see you soon._

_Love, Weiss_

Winter smiled and sent a quick response, letting her know she was being careful and that she would let her know if she would be back in time for the ceremony. Slipping it back into her pocket, Winter started on her dinner. The food was decent, and it gave Winter the energy she needed and got rid of her stomach pains.

Her mind started to wander, and she looked around, desperate for anything to distract her.

 

 _I spoke too soon_.

 

“Fancy seeing you here.”  
Winter’s body tensed, and she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She turned to face the man sitting on the table.

“What are you doing here Qrow?”  
“I’m working. I’m guessing you are too; you don’t strike me as the time to visit Vacuoan theatres in your downtime.”  
“Nothing gets past you does it?” She asked, standing up and dropping her rubbish in the trash.

Qrow jumped off the table and fell into place beside her.   
“I’m guessing you’re the soldier Jimmy sent to meet Sabra at Xing.”  
Winter glared at him. “How do you know about that?”  
“A massacre of Atlasian soldiers isn’t exactly gonna stay secret for long. Ozpin sent me to “assist”.” He made the air quotations, clearly unimpressed with his mission.

“Well thank you, but you can tell Ozpin I can handle myself.”  
“Ozpin isn’t the one who doesn’t think you can handle yourself, ice Queen.”  
Winter stopped in her tracks. Trying hard to contain her emotions. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter.”

Qrow looked at her in surprise. “What? You’re not bothered that daddy doesn’t trust you with a job outta town.”  
“Don’t call him that,” Winter snapped.

“Sorry, _General Ironwood_ , doesn’t trust you with this mission,” He correct, clearly goading her.

“I heard you the first time,” She muttered. “I just want to finish the job and get home.”  
“Right,” Qrow said slowly, continuing to walk beside her. After a few minutes Qrow broke the uncomfortable and tense silence.  
“I’m sorry for your loss.”  
“Excuse me?”  
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I figure some of those specialists who die were your friends right? I’m sorry.”  
Winter was silent, her mind drifting briefly to Cyan’s smile, and the fact she would never see it again.

“Thank you.” She said softly.

“How you holding up?”  
“What do you care?” She asked tiredly.

“Look, if I’m gonna have your back it would be nice to know if you’re going to be able to handle yourself or if you’re going to sulk the whole time.”  
She glared at him. “I can handle myself,”

“Good. See you tomorrow ice queen,” He winked, walking off. It was only as he left Winter realised, she was in front of her hotel.

“How did you-” she turned back, but he was already gone. She looked through the slowly dissipating crowd but couldn’t stop his stupid hair or his tattered cape anywhere.

“Great,” She muttered, swiping her key card to get into her room, “this is going to be trouble.”  


 

_She had the same dream that night. This time she could hear the shrill screams of the Grimm as he held her down._

 

Qrow was waiting in for her in the airship the next day. Winter ignored him as she stowed her luggage under her seat.

“Good morning snow angel.”

Winter glared at him, taking a seat opposite him and looking out the window.

“So, what exactly are we going to Xing for?”  
Winter raised an eyebrow. “Ozpin sent you here without telling you what the job was?”  
“Jimmy was pretty tight lipped about it. Just said I’d be briefed when I got here.”  
Winter took a deep breath, pinching her nose.

_He sends you a partner and doesn’t even telling him what you’re doing? Yeah, sounds like he really cares about you._

“We’re meeting a huntsman who claims to have encountered the Grimm from Oak Hollow.”

“What did these things look like?”  
Winter reached into her pack and pulled out her notebook, handing the picture over to Qrow.   
“Creepy looking fucker isn’t it?” he muttered, reading her notes. “There’s only been two confirmed attacks from these Grimm?”  
“Three,” Winer corrected, “that left witnesses. I found eleven other incidences throughout history with similar MO’s that could possibly be attributed to these Grimm.”  
“They attack in the night and wipe out entire villages?”  
“The smallest town that could possibly be attributed to them was a small village in South Vacuo; Sabra claims to have arrived right after the attack. The largest was mountain Oak. However, we’re unsure if they’re responsibly for wiping out the town or if they simply took up residence there after it was vacated.”  
“Sabra was at the attack in south Vacuo?”  
“According to Gale.”  
“How long ago?”  
“Approximately four months ago. He’s been travelling around Vacuo ever since looking for answers.”

“And he agreed to meet with you?” he asked, somewhat sceptical as he handed her the book.  
“I think after four months anyone would do anything for answers,” She said softly, taking the notebook and returning it to her bag.

  
The rest of the flight was in silence, and by the time they reached Xing the sun was at it’s highest and beating down on them. Qrow had sweet talked them a ride at the back of a hay cart to the edge of the city, and they walked the rest of the way to the cabin’s spread sporadically through the desert.

“It that the cabin or am I hallucinating?” Qrow asked, shading his eyes with his hand to get a better look.   
“It’s the cabin,” Winter confirmed, leading the way up to the sand eroded hut on the edge of a mostly dead forest. Winter knocked, noting the door had several holes in it. Hardly a sturdy dwelling.

“Comin’!” Called a voice from inside. Winter stepped back beside Qrow.   
The door opened and a tall, tan man appeared. He looked them both up and down, paying special attention to Winter before leaning against the frame.

“Can I help you?” He asked in a deep, rough voice, his eyes going over Winter once again.

“Mr Sabre?” She asked in a terse, professional voice.

“Yeah. You the Atlas girl?”  
“Specialist Schnee,” Winter corrected. “I’m here to get your statement on the events that took place in Yellow Ridge last year?”  
Sabra nodded, stepping back into the house. “I’m making dinner, come inside.”  
Winter and Qrow shared a dubious look before stepping inside.

The interior of the house wasn’t much better from the outside. There was a bag and a thread bare sleeping bag in the corner with almost nothing else.

“Kinda early for dinner isn’t it?” Qrow asked.

“Gotta get an early night.” Sabra answered, pulling out a pot and several food items from his bag. He picked them up and lead them outside to where the shadow of the house had stretched over the sand and pulled out wood from underneath the house, setting up a small fireplace and metal camping stove. He filled the pot with water as the fire grew.

“Nice place you have here,” Qrow muttered.

“Ain’t my place; it’s an old Huntsmen stoop. It ain’t the four seasons but it’s a roof over your head.”  
“Barely,” Winter said under her breath, before clearing her throat. “Mr Sabra, it’s important we get the details of the event as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, slow down princess,” He said, stirring his pot and adding several ingredients, “You’re not leaving until tomorrow right? We got plenty of time. You’ll get your answers.”

Winter gave Qrow an annoyed look, who just shrugged. He sat down on the porch, and she sat beside him. The only sound for the next hour was the wind hissing through the sand and bare trees and Winter was growing desperate for any kind of distraction when Qrow nudged her.

“You want some?” He asked, holding out a pack of cookies. Winter raised an eyebrow in question.  Qrow shrugged.

“My nieces packed for me.”  
Winter almost smiled, and hesitantly took a cookie.

“They’re not gonna bite,” He assured her, shoving the rest of his into his mouth.

The shadows grew longer as the sun began to set and Qrow and Winter grew more and more impatient.

“You gonna tell us what happened or not?” Qrow asked, pulling out a log and sitting on it.  
“Just a second,” Sabra said, pouring the stew into a bowl. “Almost done.”  
He took a seat on the porch, crossing his legs and digging into his food. After a few mouthfuls he looked up, pushing his black hair out of his eyes. It was probably a few inches longer than Qrow’s. In fact, Winter noticed quite a few similarities between the men.

They both had stubble along their jaw, they both had tattered clothes and an air of a jaded and damaged huntsman.

“So,” Sabra said, wiping his mouth, “what do you wanna know?”  
“I’d like to hear your story from the top,” Winter said, pulling out her notebook and pen.

Sabra stirred his food, staying quiet so long Winter wandered if he was going to answer.

“Do you know why they call it Yellow ridge?” He asked softly, looking up at them. “People assume it’s because of the desert, but it’s not. Yellow Ridge is the line between the desert and the tree’s in Southern Vale. In the autumn the trees turn yellow. It’s like a golden mountain.” He put the bowl down, his face stricken. “I was in Vale, heading into Vacuo. I had reached the top of the ridge. It was… maybe eleven at night. That was when I heard the screaming. It wasn’t human. I don’t… I don’t think it was. I was hallway down the hill when I saw them. There were… it looked like hundreds, but it might have been less. They were tearing through the village. Someone had started a fire in one of the houses that tore through the village. That was when what set off the screaming. After that it got worse. They destroyed everything as they tried to escape. They carved through the trees – the path is still there – and it was like the mountain was moving. The screams just… it sunk into your soul. I was just so afraid; it was like every fear I’d ever felt came rushing back. I don’t know how long I stood there. I thought it might have been a hallucination until I reached the village. It was burned to the ground, there was bodies everywhere. I searched until sun up for any survivors but there… there was nothing.”  
The trio sat in silence, his words setting in. Qrow looked over at Winter, seeing the horror and fear in her eyes as memories from that day ran through her mind.   
“Hey,” He said softly, “You okay?”  
Winter snapped out of it, looking at him then down at her book.   
“I’m fine,” She nodded. She cleared her throat, looking up at Sabra. “Have you ever seen any Grimm like that before?”  
“Never.” Sabra shook his head. “Just deathstalkers, Goliath’s, the usual. I’m based in Vacuo, so I thought maybe it was something based in Vale, but after the attack in Mistral… I guess I was wrong.”

 

  
Sabra didn’t have a lot more to say after that. He confirmed the picture Marshall confirmed was what he saw, but after he mentioned the scream, Winter had no doubt they were talking about the same thing.

“Well it’s not exactly a five star restaurant but its warm and I put some salt in it,” Qrow said, putting a tin bowl on the log beside Winter.

“Thank you,” She said softly. They were still out on the porch; Sabra had retired for the evening half an hour ago and Qrow had thrown together a quick dinner, despite Winter’s insistence that she was fine.

“Look, I may be the poster boy for not taking care of yourself, but even I’m not stupid enough not to eat on a job.”  
Winter rolled her eyes, taking the bowl.

“How you doing after that?” He asked.

“I’m fine.”  
“You’re lying.”  
“What does it matter? You want to sit here and talk about my feelings?” She asked sarcastically.

“If you need to.”

Winter gave him a sceptically look. “Seriously?”  
Qrow shrugged. “I’ve been through some pretty shit missions. Trust me, keeping in shit like that just makes it a lot worse.”  
“You don’t really strike me as the kind of man who enjoys talking about his feelings.”  
“I’m not,” He admitted, pulling out a metal water bottle, “but I have a pain in the ass best friend who moonlights as my personal therapist so I get to unload every now and then. I hate to admit it, but it helps.” He held out his bottle to her and she glared at him.

“It’s water,”

Winter raised an eyebrow sceptically.

“I swear.”  
Winter hesitated and took the bottle.

“Speaking of bad habits, I haven’t seen you take a drink since we got here,” Winter said as she handed back the water bottle.

“Yeah uh, I’m actually trying to quit.”  
Winter looked over at him in surprise. “Really?”  Few huntsmen who fell into their coping mechanisms as severely as Qrow Branwen had fallen into his had managed to pull themselves out. Despite the numerous organisations to help, the job was just too demanding, and almost everyone Winter knew had some detrimental comfort or another to partake in during their downtime. Jameson occasionally got high and took pain killers, and she knew not every scar on Karloff’s body was from battle.

Qrow nodded. “Yeah. I’ve tried a few times before, but I don’t really make it past a few weeks.”  
“How long have you gone this time?”  
Qrow dug into his pocket and pulled out a coin. “Three months, two weeks and four days.”

Winter nodded, a slight smile on her lips. “That’s… great. I’m really proud of you.”  
It was Qrow’s turn to be surprised. “Oh. Thanks.”  
“I’m serious. I know it’s not an easy habit to break.”  
“Tell me about it,” He muttered. “first week of detox was hell. The rest hasn’t been that easy either.”  
“Just remember why you’re doing it,” Winter said softly, playing with the chain around her neck.

Qrow nodded, smiling slightly, “My nieces are starting at Beacon this year.”  
“So is my sister.”  
Qrow looked at her. “Not Atlas?”  
“No. It’ll be good for her to get out of Atlas for a while.”

“You went to Atlas, didn’t you?”

“Yes, and I turned out so well,” She muttered sarcastically.

“Ah, come on, you’re alright.”  
“Really?” She asked, her smile growing.

“I mean, you’re not that bad.”  
“You said I’m alright.” She grinned.

“No I said you’re not that bad.”  
“You think I’m alright.”  
“You’re not terrible.”  
Winter smiled at him and he rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”  
Winter laughed softly. “Well I don’t think you’re so bad either.”  
“Thanks princess.”  
“Excuse me, it’s queen to you,” She shoved him. He shoved her back, both of them laughing.

It felt nice to have her mind taken off… things. Even if it was strange to have Qrow Branwen be the one to make her smile.

 

Winter woke up when the sun was still down. Opening her eyes, she saw Sabra pouring water over the small fire she had built between herself and Qrow.

“What are you doing?”  
“Heading out.” He said.  
“And you’re watering the embers because you didn’t want to start a bushfire?” Winter asked sarcastically, sitting up.

“You two know you’re way back to Xing?”  
Winter nodded, and Sabra swung his pack onto his back, taking off towards the dead trees. Winter walked over to the fire and took the leftover water, pouring it on Qrow’s face.   
“What?” He asked, sitting up.

“It’s time to get up. We want to make it to the forest before the sun gets too high.”  
“Yeah,” He mumbled, wiping his eyes. He shoved his ratty blanket into his pack and slipped his scythe onto his back.

“Are you ready?” Winter asked. He nodded and they began walking. They were walking for about an hour before the sun came up, and Qrow was getting bored; he hadn’t gone this long in a Schnee’s presence without annoying them in… ever.

“You sure you know the way back?”  
“There’s only one main path for ten miles Qrow.” Winter answered, rolling her eyes.   
“Excuse me; I just didn’t want to end up at the Sand Lakes and have to walk all the way back.   
“I know the way.” She snapped. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually end up lost on a clear path.”  
“Are you sure about that?”

Winter stopped walking. “What is that supposed to mean?”  
“It doesn’t mean anything.”  
“Then why did you say it?”

“I was just being a smartass okay?”  
Winter continued to glare at him. Qrow sighed.

“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just trying to annoy you.”  
Winter continued to glare slightly, but walked along with him. After a few minutes she asked.

“Why do you do that?”  
“Do what?”  
“Pick a fight whenever we meet? I never did anything to you.”  
“I don’t know?” He shrugged, “Look, I was just being stupid.”  
“I’m not talking about now, I’m talking about all the time. In Atlas, in Vacuo, in Vale. In Vacuo. In Vacuo.”  
“You said Vacuo three times.”  
“We’ve fought in Vacuo three times.”  
“We never fought that second time.”  
“You locked the specialists in our hotel.”  
“I was just testing out the skill of Atlas’ finest to get themselves out of a tight situation.”  
“We were undercover! You stuck Jared’s hand to the doorknob.”  
“Yeah,” he chuckled. Winter glared at him.

“Sorry. How about a truce?” Qrow stopped walking, holding his hand out to her. “I’ll stop the smart ass comments to you and the other specialists, to your face,” He added quickly, “and stop trying to start fights. And you stop trying to kill me.”  
Winter gave him a sceptical look, looking between him and the hand.

“I swear,” Qrow added. Winter hesitated a moment longer and took his hand, shaking it.

“Thank you,” He nodded, looking back down the path. “How much longer do you think we have to go?”  
“Maybe another ninety minutes to two hours?” Winter said, “We better get going, our flight leaves for Vale at midnight.”  
Qrow nodded and they continued walking, uneasy silence between them.

 _Should I say something?_ Qrow thought to himself.

_Does he want to talk? What would I even talk to him about?_

“So, is Beacon a good school?”  
“Huh?” Qrow looked over at her in surprise.

“Beacon? Weiss will be attending next school year.” Winter elaborated. “I’ve done all the research I could but as you actually attended, I wondered your opinion.”  
Qrow raised an eyebrow but answered her anyway. “It’s good. Much more relaxed than Atlas, but they still kicked our asses. And I thought I knew everything there was to know about fighting Grimm.”  
“You know the headmaster well?”  
“Yeah, he’s a good guy. All the teachers are good actually. Glynda’s a bit… terrifying. And Peach is kinda,” He wiggled his fingers by his head, “out there. But they’re good teachers.”

“That’s good,” Winter nodded, not sure of where to take the conversation from there.

“So how did your sister convince your dad to let her go to Beacon. I didn’t think they made leashes that long.”  
Winter glared at him, and he held his hands up in surrender.

“Sorry.”  
“It took a lot,” Winter admitted, “But eventually I convinced him it would be best if Weiss got some experience in the outside world before she became the head of the company. She’s never been out of Atlas without our parents supervising her; it’ll be good for her to be in Vale for a while and out from under his thumb.”  
“You think you would be different if you attended school in another kingdom?”

Winter glanced at him. “I wanted to attend Mistral,” She admitted.

“Why didn’t you?”  
Winter tensed slightly. “I… couldn’t convince my father.”  
Qrow raised an eyebrow at the obvious lie but let it go, looking back down the path. He could see the rock hills ahead. They weren’t anything special; a cluster of rocks maybe forty feet high and a few miles across, but they were a sign they were just an hour out of the city.

“Not far now,” he said, looking around for the makeshift staircase they had used to get over it.  
“Explain again why I can’t just use my semblance?” Winter asked.

“Uh, because this is bandit country and if anyone is watching us and they figure out you’re a _Schnee_ ,” He lowered his voice as he said her name, “we could be dealing with a lot more trouble than we need right now.”  
“Where would they be watching us from?” Winter asked, gesturing around at the mostly dead trees and scarce forest edge.

“Um, on the other side?” He said like it was obvious.  
“We’re not on the other side. Can’t we just use my glyphs to get to the top?”  
“Can’t we just climb?”  
“You can climb; I’m using my glyphs.” Winter said, walking up to the rocks.   
“Can you even use them up a rockface?”

“Of course. I’ll meet you at the top.”  
In a flash she was gone. Qrow turned to the top of the mountain, and could see her standing at the top.

“I’ll wait up here for you!” She called down. He gave her the finger and started climbing.

 

 

Winter looked up as Qrow final made it to the top. She’d created an ice wall over herself for cover.  
“Have fun?” She asked him.  
“A blast,” He muttered. “I thought you didn’t use dust?”  
“I don’t, not in my weapon anyway. This,” She gestured to her cool cover, “is from here,” She pulled a handgun out from her bag.  
“Since when do you carry a gun?” he asked, sitting in the shade beside her.  
“Since I thought I was going to be in Vacuo for a week alone. You said it yourself; people here aren’t exactly my family’s biggest fans.”  
“Why do you walk around like that then?”  
“Like what?”  
“Like you. You look like yourself. Don’t you think at least one asshole in town is going to see you and recognise you?”

“What do you expect me to do? Wear a wig?”  
“A hood would help. Most people wear something; it’s fucking hot here. Wait, did you say a week?”  
“The general wants all information on anything that could possibly be related to the Grimm uploading to our database.”  
“He wants you to upload it all by yourself?”

“Yes.”  
“…Don’t specialists usually work with partners or teams?”  
“Usually. However after the massacre General Ironwood decided our resources were stretched too thin and it would be a waste to send more than one specialist on this job.”  
Qrow stared at her for a minute. “You know that’s a load of bullshit ,right?”  
Winter bit her lip, and nodded. “Yes.”  
“I mean, there were specialists that weren’t even there? What are they doing right now?”  
“Probably nothing.” Winter muttered.

“So, what? Jimmy’s got a grudge against you now or something?”  
Winter shrugged. “I don’t know.” She said softly. “I wasn’t exactly in a position to say no.”  
Qrow frowned, but didn’t say anything else. After a minute he stood, swinging his pack onto his back. “We should keep going?”  
Winter nodded, standing and slipping her gun back into her bag. They walked over the top and started down.

Despite her sure footing, Winter’s heel slipped about half way down. Qrow reached for her hand but missed; all he could do was watch as she fell.

“Shit!” He cried, landing on his feet beside her. “Are you okay?”   
Winter was lying on her side, clutching her arm. He rolled her over just enough to look at her and saw the blood dripping from her temple.

“Shit, we need to get you to the city.”  
“I’m alright,” Winter said weakly, trying to sit up.   
“You’re not alright,” He said, opening his bag and searching for a first aid kit. He found it, but all he had was a needle, some thread, some old rags and a lighter.

“I have one,” Winter said. Qrow looked around for her bag and saw it had landed at the base of the rocks. Putting one arm under her legs and the other behind her back he carried her to the rocks, letting her rest against it as he looked through her bag.

“Found it,” He said at last, turning back to her, he opened the box and found bandages and disinfectant.

“Honestly Qrow I’m fine,” Winter said, rubbing her eyes. “I’ll heal in a second.”  
“Not with rocks and shit in your head. Hold still.” He cleaned up the wounds on her temple and hands and made sure her arm was okay.

“See? I’m fine.”  
“Fine.”  
“That was strange,” Winter looked back up the rocks. “I was so sure I was secure.”  
“Rock probably just gave out,” Qrow said monotonously, putting the kit back and refusing to look at her. “Happens to the best of us.” He put his kit on his back and helped her stand.   
“I can carry my own pack.”  
“If you make it to Xing and you haven’t passed out you can carry your own pack. Now march.”  
Winter rolled her eyes but walked on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked the chapter, let me know what you think and if you want to see more


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey!”  
Winter snapped out of her trance, looking up at Qrow, who was sitting beside her on the mostly empty flight back to Vale.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Winter looked back at the book in her lap, clearing her throat and trying to catch her train of thought.

“I was just… all of the attacks started at night. In the one Sabra witnessed the Grimm fled because a villager started a fire. Marshall said none of the huntsmen found anything the next day when they returned, and the Grimm in Oak Hollow only came out after we had moved into the shadows at late afternoon,”  
“They were in the dark,” Qrow finished.

“Do you think they could be sensitive to light?”  
“But why would they stay in Oak hollow and not Marshall’s village?”  
“The buildings in the village were old, weak,” Winter pulled out the file, turning to the pictures of the aftermath. “They were planning a massive upgrade of the village,” she continued, going through the files, “that’s why there were so many huntsmen in the nearby village; they were supposed to guard against the increased negative emotions during the renovations.”

“I’ve never heard of Grimm being sensitive to light,” Qrow muttered, looking over her shoulder.

“They come in the night, wipe out entire villages, leave no witnesses behind,” Winter said as she flicked through her notes.

“What do you think drew them out in Oak Hollow? Aren’t you guys trained to keep your emotions in check?”  
“Of course we are. There must be something else. Maybe they were just drawn to the noise, or maybe they’re more territorial than other Grimm. If we could study them or had any idea how to track them then we might have an advantage but I wouldn’t even know where to start.”  
“I do,”  
Winter frowned at him and he gave her a look.  
“No,” she said as realisation sunk in, “no I-I’m not going back there,”  
“I’m not asking you to. But if we can capture one Vacuo has experts who can study it.”  
“I’m not going anywhere near those things,” Winter said quickly and firmly. “I’m not… I’m not going back. I’m not sending any of my soldiers back.”  
“Okay,” Qrow said, assuring her. “You don’t have to. It’s just an idea.”  
Winter took a deep breath, leaning back against her seat, rubbing her forehead. “How much longer until we reach Vale?”  
Qrow checked the monitor at the front. “About another hour and a half.”  
Winter nodded, and they sat in silence until the airship touched down in Central Vale.

“You spending the night or does Jimmy have you on a curfew?”  
“I’ll catch the next flight,” Winter said, ignoring the jab, “I need to get this back to Atlas.”

Qrow raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Come on, I’ll shout your coffee while you wait.”  
Winter followed him but gave him a suspicious look.   
“What are you doing?”  
Qrow got their coffee’s and they took a seat in a booth at the back of the small airport café.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”

Qrow shrugged. “Figured I owe you for not stabbing me for the shots at Ironwood.”  
Winter rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I really care anymore.” She sighed.

“What? Really? Wow, what did he do to get in his straight up swimfan putting him in the dog house?”  
Winter glared at him, more for the shot at her than at her boss.

“Sorry,”  
“He didn’t do anything,”  
“So you’re just mad at him?”  
“I’m not mad at him, I’m just… not sure where to go from here. I don’t know why I’m talking to you about this.”  
“Who else are you going to talk to?”  
She bit her lip. “…Shut up.”  
Qrow chuckled. “What did he do? Are you just pissed because he sent you out here or did he mess up in Oak Hollow?”  
“No-! I mean, he didn’t… it wasn’t his fault. The huntsmen Lionheart recommended messed up. We sent them in with a specialist pilot watching the perimeter and standing guard as the huntsmen cleared the city. They finished the report saying the city was absent of Grimm. That was why we went ahead.”  
“I guess Lionheart is getting torn a new one by Ironwood.”  
“It certainly wouldn’t be out of line.” Winter gripped her cup tightly.

“I’m sorry.”  
Winter looked up, her anger clearing away for confusion and surprise. “What?”  
“I’m sorry it happened. Losing teammates… it’s never easy.”  
Winter shook her head slightly. “No, it’s not.”  
“And I’m sorry Jimmy’s got a stick up his ass and sent you to sand hell to get some files Gale could have sent you.”  
“It doesn’t matter.”  
Qrow gave her a strange look. This wasn’t the Winter Schnee he knew. She hadn’t tried to hurt him the whole time. Winter was cold and warm at the same time. Winter Schnee was hot tempered and fiercely loyal to Ironwood.

This Winter was… subdued. Almost defeated. As much as she denied it, Ironwood must have done something to break her loyalty.

Winter finished her coffee and checked her scroll for the time. “I need to get to my gate.”  
“Yeah, you’ve only got two hours; you better hurry.”  
Winter rolled her eyes but smiled. “Thank you for your help. Qrow,”  
“It was my pleasure, to see you fall on your ass down that hill. Winter,”  
Winter rolled her eyes. “Goodbye Branwen.”  
“See ya around Schnee.”  


 

 

Sleep evaded Winter on the flight back to Atlas, and she was surprised the insomnia took that long to kick in. She spent the flight typing up her notes and theories and checking her messages.

She had two from Weiss, which wasn’t uncommon, but she also had six from Jameson, two from Karloff, and two missed calls from Ironwood.

Getting up and walking to the standing area of the ship. Making sure the room was empty, Winter called her boss.

“Schnee, are you alone?”  
“Yes, why?”  
“Some new information has come to light.”  
“What happened?”  
“The bodies of the huntsmen Lionheart send to clear out Oak Hollow were found yesterday. They time of death was placed at the day they were set to clear out the city. They were found off the coast of Menagerie.”  
Winter’s blood ran cold. “They were never in Oak Hollow?”  
“No. Someone forged the report.”

Winter opened her mouth to ask who, when realisation slammed into her.

The Specialist who had overseen the mission.

“Boa.”  
“He hasn’t been seen since he landed in Atlas.”

Winter felt her throat tighten as she began to panic. “Do we have any idea why?”  
“Not yet, but we have people combing through every inch of his life; we’ll find it.”  
Winter nodded, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Are the public to be informed?”  
“We’ve got law enforcement on high alert in the four kingdoms, but it won’t be announced to the public until after the memorial ceremony. Boa is dangerous; if he feels cornered it’ll be that much worse. We need to give them a chance to find him before making it known. Ozpin, Lionheart and Gale will be briefing their huntsmen as soon as possible.”  
Winter frowned. Had Qrow known? No, he couldn’t have; he’d been out of reception since yesterday just like her.

The relief at knowing he hadn’t betrayed her had been unexpected. _What do I care if Qrow knew?_

Deep down she knew it would have bothered her, especially on the heels of Ironwood’s… behaviour.

“What do you need me to do?”  
“I need you to get back here with your report,” Ironwood answered.

“I’ve already sent it.”  
“I’d rather hear it from you directly.”  
Winter felt annoyed but agreed. “Of course, sir. I’ll head straight to the base after landing.”  
“Good. Head straight to my office, I’ll be in here.”  
“Yes sir.”  
Winter hung up, slipping her scroll back into her pocket. She looked out over the dark Atlasian ocean, watching the dark, icy waves crashing over each other.

With a deep breath, she headed back to her seat, wanting to catch any semblance of rest she could before the emotional onslaught waiting for her at the army base.

 

 

 

 

Ironwood was reading her report when she arrived, which Winter though was pointless upon his insistence she retell him the whole thing herself.

“How was the flight?” He asked as she came to a stop in front of his desk.

“Fine.” She said tensely. “Should I proceed with the report?”  
Ironwood nodded, and Winter pulled out her notes, going over the details, possible theories and explanations as well as Marshall and Sabra’s reports.   
“It matches what we witnessed.” She said, pulling up the rendering she’d pulled form one of the notebooks.

“Where did this picture come from?” Ironwood asked, walking around her desk.

“Sabra’s initial report. Professor Gale hired an artist to get as close to what Sabra witnessed as possible.”  
Ironwood stared at the vague monstrosity on the screen for a minute.

“This is good work Schnee.”  
“Thank you sir.” Winter hesitated just a moment. “May I ask about Boa?”  
“What do you wish to know?” He asked, still looking at the screen.   
“I was wandering if you had any theories as to why he would betray the military. Do we know if it was personal, or… if he was being paid?”  
“Not yet, but Boa came from a wealthy family; he didn’t need the payoff.”  
“Maybe he got greedy,” She suggested, more than familiar that for some people all the money in the world wouldn’t be enough.  
“Did he ever give you that impression?”  
Winter thought over her interactions with Boa. He was the kind of guy who didn’t have much of a separation between his personal and professional life, and as a result, Winter knew a fair bit about him.

“No, not really. He cared more about showing off and proving how good he was than the money. He rarely talked about his parent’s company.”

Ironwood sighed. “He was a hotshot, but he wasn’t evil.”  
“No, he wasn’t.” Winter agreed.

“Can you think of any personal reason he’d arrange the attack?”  
Winter thought carefully. The specialists there had been Winter’s team; Boa had always gotten along well with them, and he certainly wasn’t the kind to hide his emotions. Hell, he made Winter look like the calm, well behaved heiress she was supposed to be.  
“No. To my knowledge he got along with all of the specialists. Most people in general, actually. He could grate on people’s nerves sometimes, but he was charming, so he got along well with them most of the time.”

“And the soldiers?”  
“I… don’t know. We didn’t really know any of them that well; he mostly socialised with the other specialists during work hours; I don’t know who he was friends with when we were off duty.”  
Ironwood nodded. “Alright, go home, get some rest. You have a meeting tomorrow at three thirty to give your statement on Boa.”  
Winter nodded, grabbing her file. “And… I was hoping we could talk, sooner rather than later.’  
Ironwood tensed slightly and nodded. “I’ll clear my schedule for tomorrow night.”  
Winter nodded, somewhat annoyed he hadn’t taken the hint. “Of course. Goodnight sir.”  
“Goodnight,” He didn’t look up from his file. Winter refrained from rolling her eyes and headed to the elevator.

She barely stopped herself from putting another dent in the wall.

 

 

 

Winter didn’t care what tactful bullshit name they gave her ‘interview’, she had been interrogated.

Luckily for her she hadn’t been intimidated in the slightest by the woman asking her the questions. She gave off a very strong ‘small woman grasping for any bit of power she could get her hands on’ vibe. Winter recounted the events of that day as well as her opinion and history with Boa in a monotonous, steady tone.

“Alright Miss Schnee, you’re excused.”  
Winter didn’t care enough to correct her, just standing and walking out as quickly as was appropriate. She checked the time. _6:07 pm._

She headed to the specialists centre, deciding she needed a workout and a shower if she was going to stay awake long enough to talk to James without ripping his head on.

As soon as she stepped inside Winter regretted her decision. There were only three other specialists in the room, all sitting in the lounge, all looking exhausted. She had no doubt they were there to talk about Boa.

She headed to her locker, keying in the password and opening the metal door. Jameson once said it reminded her of opening a fridge, and now Winter though about that every time she did it.

Pulling out her training gear, Winter quickly got changed and headed to the empty gym. She beat the hell out of three a punching bag, and lifted weights until her arms were screaming at her and her legs were shaking. Waiting until she could stand, Winter was about to hit the showers when she heard splashing on the lower level.   
Walking down the steel stairs beside the glass wall, she noticed someone doing laps in the dimly lit pool.

“You’re alive,” She said flatly as Leek came up for air at the edge of the pool.

“So are you.” The younger woman said, breathing heavily as she swam to the steps. Winter sat down and put her feet in the water, watching as she pulled off her goggles and hair tie.

“When did you get out of the hospital?” Winter asked.

“Not long after we landed.” The other woman pulled herself up to sit on the top of the ladder. “I told them I’d take it easy and Ironwood cleared me.”

“Wow, how do I get that kind of credibility?” Winter asked, a tad sarcastically and entirely unserious.

“Maybe don’t try to break out the second your conscious,” Leek answered with a slight laugh. “I heard you were in Vacuo?” She said, wringing out her dark green hair.

“I was. A fact-finding mission for Ironwood.”  
Leek nodded, looking out into the distance. “Did you hear about Boa?”  
“Yes,” Winter sighed. She looked at the woman she would tentatively call a friend. “Did you… did he ever give you any sign he would do this? I’ve been looking back since I found out he was involved, and I can’t see anything.”  
“No,” She shook her head. “Maybe he was forced to do it?”  
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out when we find him.”  
Leek nodded. Winter could see her thinking; she wasn’t surprised when she spoke.   
“Winter?”  
“Yes?”  
“What do you think is going to happen now? With the specialists, I mean. We’re already recruited right out of the academy, ae just lost a quarter of our numbers in a single mission”  
“I imagine General Ironwood will open more positions up to the top soldiers. There will be trails and programs, which means more work for the superior officers,” Winter wasn’t looking forward to it, “But desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose.”  
Leek nodded. “I heard a few of the specialists are putting in for a discharge and to have their Huntsmen licences reinstated.”  
Winter looked over at her in surprise. “Who?”  
“Karloff and Armin were talking about it. Harbour is the only one to go through with it as far as I know.”  
Winter felt a spark of anger. “Harbour wasn’t even there.”  
“They were pretty spooked by the reports. Nothing has ever wiped out so many specialists at once.”  
“Well abandoning the military isn’t going to help anything.”  
“They’re not… abandoning the military, Winter.” Leek said, choosing her words carefully, “But what happened was terrifying. _I’m_ terrified. They have families and friends they love and what to be around to see. Being faced with the prospect of death is a lot more daunting in reality than theory. Especially when its at the hands of something we have no information on or have ever faced.”  
Winter sighed, letting her head fall back. “How do you deal with this Erica? I haven’t been able to sleep, I hear the screams and I see them every time I close my eyes. It all happened so fast.”  
“I drink.”  
Winter gave her a look. Erica shrugged.   
“I have a therapist. And I vent to my girlfriend a lot.”  
“You have a therapist?”  
“Yeah. You can get them through the military but they have to report to your boss if you say something that could affect your performance, so it’s a pretty shit system. I can give you her details if you want?”  
Winter gave a short laugh. “Thank you, but I’m not exactly the ‘talking about my feelings with a complete stranger’ type.”  
Leek gave a one shoulder shrug. “Suit yourself. How do you cope with this?”  
Winter took a deep breath, letting it out. “I don’t know. I don’t think I do.”  
Leek sat forward, her hands on her knees. “I’m sorry about Cyan. I know you guys were close. Are you going to the ceremony tomorrow?”  
“Yes, my sister will be there.”  
“Will Cyan’s sister be there?”  
“I don’t know.” Winter admitted. “I haven’t been in contact with her family since… since before the job.”  
Erica’s scroll vibrated, and she pulled herself the rest of the way out, walking over to her bag. Winter got out and stood up, feeling better than before; she’d completely forgotten about her meeting with Ironwood.

“I have to go,” She said, heading for the stairs.   
“Okay,” Erica nodded. “I’ll see you at the ceremony.”  
Winter nodded and headed up the stairs, ignoring her screaming limbs. She got back to her locker, checking her scroll. She had a message from Ironwood.

_I’m afraid I’ll have to reschedule. Something has come up._

Winter let out a deep breath, groaning.

“Son of a bitch,” She muttered, throwing her scroll into her bag, getting dressed and heading home.

Back in her apartment, Winter grabbed her hairbrush, sitting at her desk and turning on her computer.

_You have two new emails from Weiss Schnee_

_You have one new email from Alize Jameson_

_You have one new email from General Ironwood_

_You have one new email from Qrow Branwen_

Winter blinked in surprise, clicking on the email from Qrow.

 

_Hey Ice Queen, found something you might be interested in_

_One attachment_

  
Winter clicked on the attachment, opening a file and scanning it. It was a witness report on another attack in Mistral two years earlier. She sent it to Ironwood and opened another email.

 

_Qrow_

_Thank you. How did you get my email?_

_Winter S._

Brushing her hair and turning on the news, Winter wandered what she would have for dinner. Throwing something simple together, she returned to her seat at her desk.

She had another email from Qrow.

_I told Jimmy I needed to return some notes you accidently left at the airport._

 

Winter raised an eyebrow, typing back.

 

_So you lied to get military information? -W_

_It’s your email not the code for your apartment calm the fuck down. -Q_

Winter rolled her eyes.

 

 _Where did you find that file?_ She asked

_Called around, an old friend took a report a few years back after an attack in southern Mistral. Thought it might interest you. -Q_

_Thank you._ Winter hesitated, then typed, _How are you? -W_

_I’m fine, why? Q_

_Just asking - W_

_….are you dying? Q_

_As if I’d be speaking to you in my final moments – W_

_Am I not scintillating enough for you? – Q_

Winter smiled, _That’s a big word – W_

_Thanks much_

Winter laughed, shaking her head.

 

_This would probably be an easier conversation over our scrolls – W_

_Miss Schnee are you giving me your number? – Q_

Winter rolled her eyes again and almost didn’t respond.

Instead she sent him her number.

She picked up her Scroll as it began to vibrate. “Hello?”  
“Wow I thought you gave me a fake number.”  
“That happens often I assume?”  
Qrow chuckled. “I don’t usually need them.”

“Wow, you don’t call women in the morning? I’m shocked,” She said sarcastically.

“That wasn’t what I meant,” He said, the end of his sentence caught up in a crash. Winter frowned.

“What are you doing?” She asked, standing up and putting her dish in the dishwasher.

“I’m trying to make lunch. Tai’s at a retraining thing to prepare to take huntsmen missions again.” He said, as though she had any idea who Tai was.  
_“Ruby! Give me back my brush!_ ” Winter heard screaming in the background.

“Ruby, stop messing with Yang’s things! She’s trying to pack!” Qrow yelled.

“ _I’m just borrowing it!_ Another higher pitched voice called.

“You have your own brush, and like, no hair! Give her brush back.”  
“ _Fine! I’m gonna use_ your _brush!”_

Winter laughed softly.

“Bringing back memories?” Qrow asked.

“Maybe,” Winter smiled, remembering the petty arguments she and Weiss had gotten into over Weiss going through her things.

“How’s Atlas?”  
“Still standing. How’s Vale?”  
“I’m in Patch, actually. And it’s fine. _Yang, Ruby, can you get this dog outside!”_

“You have a dog?” Winter asked. Opening her email from Weiss and confirming she would be at the ceremony the next night.

“Tai and the girls have a puppy. The damn thing keeps biting my shoe.”  
_“Don’t be mean to Zwei!”_ came the same high-pitched voice from before.

“Yeah, yeah just get him outside so I can finish making _your_ lunch.”

Ruby stuck her tongue out and Qrow and Qrow stuck his tongue out back at her.

 _“Stop being mean to Zwei and just talk to your girlfriend!”  
_“Shut up kid or I’ll lock you outside too.”

“I take it those are your nieces?” Winter assumed.

“Lucky guess. How’s our sister?”  
“Exhausted. She’s been training everyday – which I told her isn’t good for her. I think she’s actually excited to go to Vale.”  
“Are you going to the ceremony tomorrow night?”  
“Yes; I’m going to have dinner with Weiss afterwards.”  
“That’s something to look forward – shit!” He cried as he burned his hand on the stove.

“Are you alright?”  
“Just a burn.” He ran his hand under cool water. “I think I’ll live. You could come kiss it better if you want?”  
“I could come beat the shit out of you,” She offered.

“I’m good for ass beatings right now, thanks. I’ll keep you updated though.”  
Winter smiled, running her hand through her hair and leaning back in her hair.

“Do you have any jobs coming up, or are you keeping yourself free so you can babysit me at Ironwood’s beck and call?”  
“Ha, ha,” He muttered sarcastically. “For your information I only took that job because I only took that job because I owed Jimmy for gluing that kids’ hand to the door.”  
“Of course. So it had nothing to do with you just wanting to see me?” She teased.

“What? No. No!”  
“I was joking, you don’t need to be so offended.”  
“Right, yeah. Shit,” He said again, “I better go; I think Ruby lost the dog.”  
“Good luck,” She laughed.

“Yeah right,” He muttered, “See you around Ice Queen.”  
Qrow hung up, and Winter dropped her scroll in the charging pad Weiss had gotten her for her last birthday. It was in the shape of a snowflake.

Getting up, Winter decided on an early night; she had agreed to meet Jameson for lunch the next day before the ceremony, and would need all her wits about her to stop Jameson from dragging her into some stupid ‘bonding exercise’.

 

 

To Winter’s surprise, Jameson had spent most of the lunch trying to convince her to leave the military. Winter had left, both women knowing the odds weren’t great, and she returned home to get ready.

A black dress seemed appropriate, and Winter pulled out silver earrings she didn’t think she’d ever worn, doing her hair up in a neat ponytail before putting on simple black heals and her coat.

Arriving early, as usual, Winter made small talk with Karloff and Jameson about everything but Boa, Cyan and discharging. She caught site of the civilians filing in and excused herself, making her way to the front where her father and Weiss would surely be seated.

“Winter!” Weiss said, clearly trying to contain her excitement. Winter smiled and hugged her sister tightly.

“It’s good to see you Weiss.”  
“You too! I mean, I wish it wasn’t here. I’m really sorry about your friends.”  
“They’re teammates Weiss,” Their father corrected, coming up behind them, “and if you’re going to babble don’t speak at all.”  
“Wow, feels just like home,” Winter muttered. “Hello Whitley,” she said upon noticing her brother at Jacques side.

“Hello Winter. My condolences for your loss; such a tragedy.”  
Jacques seemed proud at how Whitley had handled himself and Winter barely managed to refrain from rolling her eyes. His words couldn’t have been more fake if they were computer generated.

“Are you sitting with us?”  
Winter nodded and the two Schnee’s found their spot, waiting for the ceremony to start.   
“Are you excited to go to Beacon?” Winter asked, adjusting her dress.

“I suppose. I’m… unsure, about my future in Vale.”  
Winter raised an eyebrow at the vague statement. “Which part?”  
“School,” Weiss admitted. “Making friends.”

“You’ll make friends,” Winter promised her. “You won’t get any treatment and trust me, that’ll do you a world of good.”  
“So, you think having special treatment made school harder for you?”  
“It’s hard to know where you really stand when people keep putting you on a pedestal.”  
Weiss nodded, wringing her hands slightly. She stopped as she noticed her father and brother walking over to them.

“Please don’t start a fight with him,” Weiss begged softly.

“I’ll be on my best behaviour,” Winter promised flatly, crossing her heart. Weiss smiled slightly, sitting up straight as Whitley took his seat beside her.

The men didn’t say a word to Winter as the ceremony began.

Ironwood gave his speech commemorating the lives and sacrifice of the fallen specialists, and Winter couldn’t help but see him as she had a week ago; a strong leader, a General, a huntsman.

The man she had feelings for.

_Had?_

Had.

Catching herself daydreaming, Winter took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind as it drifted back to that night in the hospital. Her emotions and feelings were all over the place, and it took all her self-control to not just brush it away.

 

 

Winter felt Weiss’ hand on hers as the names were unveiled. Her eyes immediately went to Cyan’s. As she felt Weiss’ hand in her own, she wandered if Cyan’s sister was there.

They’d left as soon as Jacques had dismissed Weiss, weaving through the crowd and retrieving their coats from the coat check.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asked as they walked out into the street.

“I’m fine,” She said, “I just needed to get out of there.”

“Where are we going for dinner?”  
“Element bar. Do you have your ID?”  
“Do I need an ID? I’m too young to drink.”  
“You have to be over sixteen to sit at the bar, which is where I placed the reservation; it’s the most private place.”  
“Oh. I’ve never been to a bar before.”  
“It’s not an actual bar, that’s just the name.”  
“Ah. Well if I didn’t bring my ID, we could just get them to google it right?”  
Winter laughed in surprise. “We’re not doing that; give me my scroll.”  
Weiss handed her the scroll and Winter scanned hers and Weiss’ at the door, opening it and walking inside.

“Wow, this is nice,” Weiss said, looking around the room. The roof was covered in colourful, soft bulbs that didn’t cast much of an actual light. They handed over their coats and was led to Winter’s reservation.

“This is a lot nicer than the places mother and father pick.” Weiss commented, still looking around.

“I wouldn’t be caught dead in a place Jacques or Willow would recommend,” Winter muttered, looking through the menu. Weiss ignored the comment.

“What have you been doing?” Weiss asked. The ‘ _since you almost died_ ’ went unsaid.

“I took a job in Vacuo. Other than that –”

“Wait, you took a job right after almost dying?” Weiss asked incredulously.

“Yes.” Weiss continued to look at her like she was crazy. “I was fine!”

“You almost died! Are you allowed to do that?”  
“I was personally ordered by General Ironwood,” Winter said, mockingly formal.

“That’s ridiculous.”  
“I just had to gather some information and witness statements. It was nothing physical,” She left out that she’d spend two halves of the days there walking.

“Good. Still, you shouldn’t have had to go.”  
“I’m alright Weiss,” She promised gently. Weiss took a deep breath, slipping off her step and walking forward, wrapping her arm around Winter’s waist. Winter hugged her back.

“I was so worried about you.”  
“I’m alright. And I’m sorry, I should have called you before the story broke.”  
Weiss pulled back, wiping her eyes and retaking her seat. “Well, don’t let it happen again.”  
Winter smiled softly, “Of course.”  


 

Winter walked Weiss back after dinner, listening to her sister prattle on about some girl in her ballet class.

“Ballet is the worst,” Winter said as they arrived at the ridiculously lavish townhouse. Winter felt a ping of satisfaction that they had had to buy another townhouse near the monorails after Nicolas had left his to Winter.

“I don’t suppose you can come in for a while?” Weiss asked.

“Is Willow in there?”  
“Yes,” Weiss sighed.

“I’m sorry Weiss,” Winter said, hugging her sister. Weiss hugged her back tightly.

“I’m sorry too,” Weiss sighed. “I just wish…”  
“Me too,” Winter said, releasing her from the hug.   
“It was really nice to see you Winter.”  
“It was good to see you too. Take care of yourself, and don’t be so nervous about Beacon; you’ll be great.”  
Winter waited until Weiss was inside before walking off. She checked the time and caught a cab back to the base, arriving in time to talk to Ironwood.

The secretary cleared her and Winter spent the ride up to his office trying to calm herself and gather her thoughts.

The doors opened and Winter walked into the office, her eyes zeroing in on him out on his balcony.

“Sir?”  
James turned around, seeing her in the doorway. “Winter. I’m sorry about cancelling yesterday; I’m afraid it was unavoidable.” He said, walking back inside his office.   
“Of course, sir,”  
“If we’re going to talk about this, we should probably drop the formalities.”  
Winter nodded, following him inside.

“I suppose an apology is an appropriate place to start.” He turned. Looking at her for the first time. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you; it was inappropriate and unprofessional.”  
Winter nodded slowly. “Thank you.”  
“Is there anything you’d like to say? I think it’s best to completely clear the air if we’re to regain any semblance of normalcy.”  
Winter thought for a minute. “I… I’m not sure. I’ve never been in this position before.”  
“Neither have I.”

After a long moment of silence they laughed slightly, both uncomfortable and unsure where to go from there.

“Would you like some coffee?” He offered.

“Sure,” Winter agreed, just so they wouldn’t be sitting in uncomfortable silence anymore. James moved and made poured her cup, and they found themselves sitting out on the balcony, looking over the city.

“Your speech was well done,” Winter said, warming her hands with the cup.

“Thank you.”

Winter had a dozen conversation ideas, but she struggled for one relating to their situation.

“I’m not pregnant.”  
Ironwood choked on his coffee, hap-hazardously putting it on the table as he coughed, his eyes watering.

“That’s good,” He said in a strained voice.

“I just thought I’d let you know, in case you were wandering.”  
“Well… thank you.”  
Winter nodded, taking a drink of her coffee.   
“I suppose this could have been a lot worse.”  
“I could have gotten pregnant.”  
“Someone could have seen us.”  
“It could have been better though,” Winter said softly. He looked over at her and she met his eyes.

“I am sorry Winter.” He said softly.

“I know.” She said softly.

“Can I ask, I didn’t… hurt you, did I?”  
Winter shrugged. “I’m not sure if it was the mission or that but… I don’t know. I’m fine now.”  
“I’m glad. To be completely honest I don’t really remember it that clearly.”

Winter wondered if he would be more upset if he knew just how out of control he had been; if he had seen the marks he’d left on her body.

“Well it’s over now,” She said quickly. “We can move on.”  
The winds picked up and they moved back inside.

“I heard you had dinner with your sister tonight?” He said.

Winter nodded. “It was nice to see her.”  
“Well, Atlas academy will certainly mourn its loss, but I’m sure she’ll do well in Beacon.”  
Winter nodded again, “I’m sure she will.”

“I meant to ask, how was working with Qrow? I know you two don’t have the friendliest history, but I felt it was important to have back up, especially so soon after being discharge from the hospital.”  
“I understand. It was alright. He behaved himself.”  
“Good; I’d have hated another ‘glue on the doorknob’ incident.”

“There was nothing like that. He’s actually decent company when he’s not drinking.”  
Ironwood looked up at her in surprise. “He’s not drinking?”  
“Apparently he’s been sober three months.” She said, pride tinging her tone. Ironwood nodded.

“Good. It’s dangerous for someone who takes as many risks as he does to have his focus dulled by alcohol. It’s a mystery why Ozpin keeps him so close.”

Winter frowned slightly but didn’t say anything.

“James, I was wandering if I could ask… why me?”  
Ironwood sighed, leaning against the desk and facing her. “Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure. I was angry and frustrated; I wanted a distraction. Then you were there, and alive and beautiful. You were the only symbol that I hadn’t completely failed that mission.”

Winter hoped she hadn’t blushed when he called her beautiful. Even after everything he still got a reaction out of her. “I suppose it’s not exactly uncommon to seek comfort in colleagues after a tragedy,” She tried to stay on topic, pretending she hadn’t suddenly notice how good he looked in his black dress shirt.

“No, but it can’t happen again.” He stood up, taking a slight step closer.

“No,” Her breathing hitched slightly as the distance between them closed, “of course not.”

“You really are beautiful though,” He said softly, his hand on her cheek. Winter felt the same feeling she always did when he got close to her a hundred-fold.

Winter didn’t say anything, her hands shaking slightly. Once again, she didn’t stop him when he kissed her.

The kiss was softer this time. His hand slipped into her hair gently and he stroked his thumb over her cheek. Winter rested one hand on her chest, the other going around his neck. His prosthetic hand on her waist, pulling her flush against him and his tongue swiped against her bottom lip and she let him deepen the kiss further. He left a trail of fire under her skin wherever he touched her and her heart raced as he held her close.

_Is this really so bad? Maybe it wasn’t as farfetched as she thought. No one had ever made her feel this way before._

_Maybe she did love him._

_Maybe he could love her…_

She felt his hand slip inside her coat and finally snapped to her senses.

“James, stop,” She said, her hands going to his chest and pushing him away.

“Sorry, I’m sorry,” He said, taking a step back and holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry.”  
Winter covered her mouth with her hand, her breathing shaky as she tried to get it out of control.   
“I… I have to go.”  
“Right.” She didn’t know if she imagined the flash of disappointment, but with her head spinning she wouldn’t put too much stock in it. “Uh, take the weekend; I’ll put in for personal time for you.”  
“Thank you,” Winter said, fixing her hair and doing up her coat. She hurried to the elevator, slipping inside and slamming the button until the doors finally closed.

 

As the doors closed, Winter leaned back against the back wall, letting out a deep breath and dropping her head against the cold metal.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She muttered to herself, letting her eyes fall shut.

 

James sat down in his chair, taking a moment to… calm, his body. His computer chimed and he saw he had a new message from Glynda. He went to open it, but backed out at the last second, guilt twisting in his stomach.

 

Winter got back to her apartment, curling up on her couch and hugging herself tightly.

“What am I supposed to do?” She asked softly, tears welling up in her eyes. She felt hopeless. She had no idea where to go, and she had no one to turn to.

For the first time since her very first mission, Winter wanted her mother. She wanted the mother she had had in her childhood, who was always so eager to tell her what to do, to give her direction. The mother who had walked her path, and all Winter had had to do was walk behind her.

 

 

_She dreamed of him again that night._

_This time he’d been sweet, slow, careful. It was an accumulation of all her fleeting and shameful and embarrassing fantasies she never dared to entertain. He’d held her so close, looking at her like a lover, like she was the most beautiful and precious thing in the world._

_He’d gone slow, taking his time to make her feel good, getting her ready before he entered her, his hands exploring her body and making her skin tingle. He kissed her neck, not leaving marks but sending her heart racing, his movements bringing her closer and closer to the edge until they fell together, pleasure unlike she’d ever known flooding her bodies._

_He’s stayed with her after, holding her until she’d fallen asleep in his arm._

 

 

 

When Ironwood arrived at his office the next day, he had a new email from Winter.

 

_General Ironwood_

_Honourable discharge or not; I’ll be gone by Monday._

_Winter S._

Attached at the bottom were Winter’s discharge papers and her request to have her huntress licence renewed.

James sighed and, figuring he owed her this much, processed her honourable discharge and reinstated her huntress licence.

 

 

 

Come Monday, Winter was in Vale.

Officially unemployed until her licence was reinstated, Winter spent the first week looking for apartment. There were several in central Vale that leased specifically to Huntsmen, and she eventually settled on a decent sized apartment half an hour from Beacon academy.

Surviving on her inheritance from grandparents, Winter spent the first few days in the apartment unpacking and settling in.

She hadn’t told Weiss or her parents she had quit the military, but she was sure they knew by now; she expected a frantic call from Weiss any minute.

Bored out of her mind and having used up her body’s tolerance at the gym, Winter sucked it up and headed to the shops, in need of clothes more appropriate for the warmer climate.

 

Having taken all she could, Winter threw her bags in the boot of her rental car. Her stomach growled, and she suddenly remembered she hadn’t had breakfast.

“Fine,” She muttered to herself, knowing she barely had enough food in her apartment to cover dinner that night, “Lunch it is.”  
Heading off down the street, Winter took in the various options in front of her, none of them appealing to her. Pulling out her scroll, she considered asking Qrow if he had any recommendations.

But that would mean explaining why she was in Vale.

“Watch out!”  
Winter stopped, turning towards the loud voice. A young girl ran up to her, picking up the dog that had been running towards her, a trail of flower petals falling gently to the courtyard behind her.

“I’m sorry!” The young girl said in a high-pitched voice, holding the dog to her chest.

“It’s fine,” Winter said, not really sure what she was apologising for. The dog hadn’t even touched her.

“Ruby!” Came a familiar voice. “I said if you can’t control that dog you can’t bring it to Vale.”  
“Sorry uncle Qrow!” The girl said, putting the dog down and clipping on his leash.

Winter looked up, seeing the small crowd go about their business as Qrow came through them. He looked surprised when he saw her.

“Hey Ice Queen, what are you doing in here?”  
“I-” Winter wasn’t sure what she was going to say before she was cut off by another girl appearing at Qrow’s side.

“Ruby! What was wrong with my leash? You almost lost Zwei because you wanted him on your stupid red leash?”  
“Yang, calm down.” Qrow said, “And both of you stop spending your money on the dog; we’re here for school supplies remember?”  
“Yes uncle Qrow,” The girls said simultaneously.   
“Good, now both of you get lost. I’ll meet you back at the hotel. Yang keep an eye on your sister and that dog.”  
“Will do,” Yang said, snatching the leash from Ruby. Ruby pouted and glared, walking off after her sister.

Qrow turned back to Winter and the two looked at each other in silence for a long moment.

“So,” Qrow said, “Coffee?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like the chapter, please let me know if you do. Reviews keep the chapters coming!


	4. Chapter 4

EIGHT MONTHS AFTER WINTER’S DISCHARGE

 

Winter had settled into a steady routine on her own in Vale. She woke up at six thirty, spent an hour at the gym (usually more), had breakfast and searched for hunting jobs.

Today was different.

She’d forgone the gym and spent the morning making coffee and getting ready to go out. Hearing movement in the other room, Winter grabbed the coffee and rested it on the bedside table, sitting on the bed.

“Good morning,” She said, leaning over and kissing Qrow as he woke up.

“Morning,” He smiled sleepily, kissing her back. “How long have you been up?”  
“An hour.”  
Qrow frowned, “What time is it?”  
“It’s almost eight.”  
“Oh,” He stretched and sat up.

“Coffee?” Winter held out the cup.

“Thanks,” he covered his mouth and yawned.

“So…” Winter said. “Do you know what day it is?”  
Qrow blinked blearily, thinking hard. “Wednesday?”  
“You’re so funny,” She said flatly. She pulled something out of her bedside table, holding it out to him.

“What’s this?” He asked. He put his coffee aside and opened the box, gasping excitedly.

“Oh! This is the good stuff!” He said, emptying the box in his lap. He picked up the individual blocks of chocolate, going through them

 _Sovereign Chocolate_ was the only expensive, Atlasian thing Qrow would admit to liking (“besides you, of course”), so Winter had deemed it a good gift for a special occasion.

“Wait, what is this for?” He asked.

“Well, according to the date you told me on our job in Vacuo, this is the one-year anniversary of your sobriety. You said chocolate helped with your cravings,”  
“This is expensive shit,” He said, waving a chocolate bar in her face.

“I can afford it. I just… wanted to say I’m really proud of you. Consider this incentive,”  
Qrow chuckled, putting the chocolate back in the box. “Thank you,” he leaned over, kissing her.

“You’re welcome. Now get ready,” She got out of bed, “you have your meeting with Ozpin.”  
“That’s not until this afternoon,” he groaned, falling back against the pillows.

“You’re not staying in my bed all day,” She walked around to his side of the bed, taking his empty coffee cup.

“Why not?” He asked, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her into his lap.

“Qrow,” Winter said, warning in her tone as he kissed her neck.

“Come on Win,” He said, his hand slipping under her shirt. “You’ve been in Atlas, we haven’t had sex in weeks.”  
“Because you were on a job,” Winter pointed out.

“That’s beside the point.”

Winter rolled her eyes. She had missed him…

Moving to sit across her lap, Winter kissed him back, unbuttoning her shirt and throwing it aside. Qrow moved them to be on top, pushing aside the covers and kissing down her neck, his hand slipping behind her and undoing her bra.

Winter moaned as he moved lower, her hands gripping the sheets below her.

She moaned his name, her back arching as he worked her with his mouth. Pleasure burst through her as she came, her hand tangling in his hair and his name on her lips. He moved back up to her body.

“You’re so pretty when you come,” He whispered in her ear, his hand caressing her breast. Winter caught her breath and kissed him. He deepened the kiss and kicked off his boxers. He slipped a finger inside her and then another, then another. Winter moaned, her hand digging into his shoulder as he prepared her.

“Are you ready?”  
“Yes,” She said breathlessly. Qrow gripped her thigh, pushing inside her. Winter whimpered, throwing her head back as he pulled out and pushed back inside her.

“Are you okay?”  
“Yes.” She said quickly, holding his close. Qrow kissed her passionately and began moving, one hand propping him up and the other between her legs.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” He muttered, his thrusts getting harder and his fingers working faster.

Winter cried out at the sharp thrusts. He kissed her, hard and messy as she came, tight around him. Before she had caught her breath, he followed her over the edge. He kissed her softly and laid down beside her, his arm around her. Winter turned enough to rest her head on his chest.

“I missed you,” He said softly, kissing her forehead.

“I missed you too.” She said softly, relaxing as he ran his hand softly up and down her back.

“I guess you have to shower again now,”  
Winter rolled her eyes, laughing slightly as she got the hint. “Qrow would you like to shower together?”

“I would love to,”  


After the shower Qrow finally kept his hands to himself long enough for Winter to get dressed and make breakfast. Qrow turned on the TV and watched the news as made their toast.

_”and in our top story, Mason Boa has been sentenced to life in prison following the conclusion of his trial last month. Several of Boa’s former teammates testified against him, including Winter Schnee, his commanding officer in the specialist unit and General James Ironwood himself. Boa’s motives are still unknown-”_

Winter grabbed the remote, turning off the television.

“You okay?” Qrow asked.

“I’m fine,” She said, handing him his coffee and taking a seat opposite him

“I guess the Torchwick thing hasn’t made it to the press yet?”  
“He won’t confirm whether or not Boa was actually working for him. Ironwood doesn’t want anymore news getting out until they know for sure.”  
“He paid him, didn’t he?”  
“Yes but… money as a motive just doesn’t make sense,” Winter sighed. “He never cared about that why would… his friends, loyalty, it was so important to him. Money doesn’t make sense. Neither does revenge or spite and we haven’t found any signs of blackmail.”

“Why don’t you ask him? Ironwood offered you access?”  
“Because Jameson and Leek couldn’t get anything out of him, why would I?”  
“Nothing from Karloff?”  
“He refused to see him.”  
Qrow leaned forward, taking Winter’s hand in his own. “Hey,”  
Winter looked at him.

“I know the deal was a blow, but he’ll be locked up in Polynya for the rest of his miserable life, which is practically a death sentence anyway.”  
Winter nodded slightly. Personally, she thought Polynya was too good for him, and had been devastated when the sentence had been announced, but her own preferred methods of punishment weren’t exactly legal, and Ironwood had dismissed them numbly, disappointment weighing on his shoulders.

“When are you meeting Jimmy?”  
“Tomorrow morning. Try to go easy on him,”  
“I will make no such promises,”  
Winter rolled her eyes and smiled, kissing him as she got up. “I’ll call you later,”  
“Have fun with Weiss,”  
Winter kissed him again and headed out to meet her sister.

 

 

 

 

The trip to Vale was always draining. James wasn’t sure what it was about the prospect of seeing Ozpin that made him so apprehensive.

Probably Qrow.

James wasn’t an idiot; he’d heard the rumours of Winter having become involved with the older Huntsman in Vale, and even months later wasn’t sure how he felt about it. As much as he hated to admit it, Qrow was charming and a good talker. If anyone could change Winter, it would be him.

Discharged or not, Winter was one of Atlas’ best assets. He didn’t want her being corrupted by Qrow’s blind faith in Ozpin and his passive defence system.

The only thing keeping him calm was the thought of seeing Glynda again. He was certain she’d be exasperated with the men’s somewhat childish squabbling, but he was looking forward to spending some alone time with her, if he was lucky enough to stop working for a few minutes.

The ship landed at the edge of Beacon’s courtyard and he was escorted in by the sentinels, hoping to get in a few words with Ozpin before Qrow came along and swayed whatever reason he could talk into him.

 

The meeting had been a lot of James trying to be reasonable, Qrow giving him a hard time, Glynda telling them they were children and, eventually, Ozpin taking in all the information and trying to find the middle ground. The sentinels were stationed around the city and James was relieved when he finally stepped outside. He’d be staying in the spare teacher’s room as usual, but he needed a moment before seeing Glynda.

Walking down the steps to the courtyard, James enjoyed the feeling of the night air. He’d lived in Atlas his whole life and had grown used to the frigid winds, but it was still a treat to step outside and be able to feel your nose.

The nice moment was interrupted by a chuckled. Looking around, James followed the sound around the corner, and saw Qrow sitting on a bench and talking on his scroll.

“Pleas don’t do that,” He was saying as he laughed. “Because it was really expensive, and I’m really looking forward to it… Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it all day… I was fine… I don’t think I have a best behaviour… Yeah we just finished, I’m just waiting for my cab to get here… Since I spent all day with my nieces who have more energy than the other kids in this school combined and I don’t feel like flying across half of Vale... It feels like it. I’ll be home soon… I love you too.”  
He hung up, slipping his scroll into his pocket.  
“Something I can help you with Jimmy?” He asked, getting up off the bench.

Ironwood didn’t speak for a minute until Qrow turned and began making his way out to the front of the school. Ironwood walked with him.

“I assume that was Winter?”  
“What about it?” Qrow asked, a touch defensively.

“I was merely wandering if the rumours were true?”  
“Depends what you’ve been hearing.”  
“About you and Winter.” He cut to the chase.

“If this is about that fight in Mistral, you’re the one who sent in the specialists I already had the explosive’s ready-”

“Are you seeing each other,” James cut him off, “Is what I’m asking.”  
Qrow stopped walking, turning to face him. “What if we are? What, you gonna say you don’t approve?”  
“I’m not her father, I hardly have any say in the matter.”

“Well neither does he,” Qrow said, looking somewhat annoyed. James wandered how much Winter had told him about her childhood.

“I just want to make she’s okay. Is she adjusting to Vale?”  
“She’s fine.” Qrow said. “She’s happy closer to her sister.”  
Ironwood nodded, his attention caught as a cab pulled up to the courtyard.

“Not exactly your style,” James commented.

“See you around James.”  
Qrow got in the back of the car, which disappeared down the road back into town.

Pushing all thoughts of Winter out of his mind, James headed back inside.

 

 

 

 

James woke up in a good mood the next morning.

It was a sunny day, Glynda was at the end of the bed getting dressed.  
“Good morning,” He said, kissing the back of her neck.  
“Good morning. You’re finally up.”  
“How long have you been awake?”  
“About ten minutes. You’ve been snoring like a freight train for the last hour.”  
“I don’t snore.”  
“You absolutely do snore.”  
“No I don’t,” He said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back into bed.

“James, stop it,” She laughed, slipping her hand into his.

“Why? We don’t have to be anywhere for,” He checked the time, “Another hour and a half.”  
“I have combat catch-up classes in an hour.”  
“So we have an hour.”

“We have half an hour.”  
“I can do half an hour,” He said, kissing her. Glynda took off her glasses, dropping them on the edge of the bed and kissing him back.

 

James showered after Glynda left, shaving and straightening his uniform. He was about to head out when his laptop dinged, alerting him to a new message. Opening his emails, he saw that the new email didn’t have a sender’s identification, merely a blank space.

Taking a seat, James tapped on the email. It contained a video attachment, which he opened.

The video was blurry at first before it settled. His blood ran cold and his hands shook slightly.

“Fuck,” He said under his breath, panic buzzing in every fibre of his being, stabbing into his core. He closed the email and called Ozpin.

“James?”  
“We have a problem.”

 

 

Winter had found a job in south-east Vale and was reading the information when the call came in.  
“Hello?”  
“Winter, it’s James,”  
Winter frowned, “Is something wrong?”  
She heard him take a deep breath. “Something’s happened. You need to get to Beacon. Now.”

Winter immediately assumed the worse. _Weiss_.

“I’ll be right there.” She closed her computer and grabbed her coat.

“Qrow!” She called. “Have you seen my keys?”  
There was no reply, and she stopped her frantic searching. _If he’s got his foot stuck in the drawer again…_

“Qrow?” She called, walking into her bedroom. Qrow was sitting on the bed, his scroll in his hands.

“Qrow? What are you doing?”  
He didn’t answer, his eyes glued to his screen. Winter let out an exasperated sigh.

“Qrow, I need to get to Beacon and I can’t find my keys. You were the last one to have them, _where are they_?”  
Qrow closed his scroll, raising a hand and rubbing his face. She could see his jaw clenched.

“Are you okay?” She asked, walking into the room.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked softly.

“Tell you what?” She asked, confusion written all over her face.

“Don’t fucking play stupid,” He said, standing up, running his hands through his hair.

“What are you talking about?” She asked impatiently.  
“The fucking video!” He snapped.

“What video?”  
He grabbed his scroll, opening it and throwing it at her. Winter caught the scroll and played the video. Her blood ran as she realised what it was.

“Oh my God,” She muttered. She closed the video, seeing the blank senders’ line and the message written below it.

_Looks like your Ice Queen hasn’t settled for you after all_

She closed the email, looking up at Qrow.  
“This isn’t-”

“What? What it looks like?” he snapped. “Because it looks pretty fucking obvious what it is Winter!”  
“It was just…! It was a one-time thing! It happened in the hospital right after Oak Hollow, it didn’t- it didn’t mean anything. It was before we even… happened.”  
“And you didn’t tell me?”  
“It wasn’t important, it doesn’t affect us.”

“It affects you! How could you not tell me what he did?”  
Winter frowned slightly in confusion. “What do you mean what he did?’

“Well it hardly fucking looked like it was consensual. Is this why you quit?”  
Winter blinked in surprise.  
“Qrow,” She said softly, taking a step towards him. “It wasn’t… He didn’t rape me.”

Qrow sat down on the bed, his head in his hands. She sat down beside him.

“He didn’t force himself on me,” She assured him, gently resting her hand on his shoulder. “I never said no.”  
“You don’t have to say no, you just have to not have said yes,” Qrow repeated the line he had said to his nieces a dozen times during the talks he and Tai had given them.

“It’s… complicated. It just happened. Neither of us really had time to think.”  
“I know how men’s mind works and trust me he had plenty of time to think about it.” Qrow snapped, dropping his hands from his face, still not looking at her.

“Qrow I swear, I didn’t hide this to hurt you. It was just a mistake in a moment of weakness. I wanted to pretend it never happened.”

Qrow sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Are you telling me the truth?” He asked. “He didn’t hurt you?”  
“I swear. It was just a mistake; for both of us.”  


Winter’s scroll vibrated, and she pulled it out. It was James.

“What does he want?” Qrow asked, taking the scroll from her.

“There’s a problem…” She said, realisation sinking in. Qrow grabbed the keys from the bathroom and stormed past her.  
“I’ll drive.”

 

The drive to Beacon was dangerous and tense, Qrow glaring at the road the entire time, gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. Winter didn’t say anything as they headed inside. It didn’t occur to her until they got into the elevator that James’ had probably had to show the video to Ozpin.

The elevator was about to close when they suddenly froze, before opening again. Professor Goodwitch slipping between the doors, turning and glaring ahead.

Qrow looked at her. “Bad class?”

“Shut the fuck up Branwen.” She snapped.

“Yep,”

Winter hoped she hadn’t actually been in love with Ironwood; she could see why this would be a blow.

The doors opened to Ozpin’s office and Glynda stormed out. Qrow and Winter gave each other a nervous look and followed her.

James and Ozpin were standing by his desk talking when they came in. Glynda walked over to the men, her heels clicking aggressively on the stone floor.

James turned to look at her, and Glynda slapped him in the face. He stumbled slightly, raising his hand to touch his face. Ozpin looked between the two in surprise but didn’t intervene.

Ironwood stood back up, “Okay, that’s fair.”  
“What the _fuck_ were you thinking?!” She screamed. She pointed behind them to Winter, “She’s a child!”

“She’s not a _child_ ,” James said, holding his hands up, trying to placate her and worried she was going to hit him again.  
“Still a pretty shitty thing to do,” Qrow threw in. Winter smacked him.

“Stay out of it,” She whispered sharply.

“No I think he should have a say,” Glynda interrupted.

“He’s not involved in this,” James pointed out.

“No but he hates you too, so I want to hear what he has to say.”  
“No, that was it,” Qrow said, pouring himself some coffee. Winter sighed, rubbing her eyes.

“How did you even see the video?” James asked.

“You left the email open in your room, dumbass. I can see why she spread her legs for you. You think you could have mentioned that before you took me to bed last night?!”  
Winter felt her face burn in embarrassment.  
“Okay Glynda calm down.” Qrow said firmly.

“It was just a one-off, eight months ago.” Winter said, trying to placate the situation. “It happened before Qrow and I and you and James.” She winced slightly at the familiarity of his first name.”  
“Well that would be wonderful if I hadn’t been sleeping with him for the last two years!” she snapped.

Winter frowned, looking at James in shock at the news. James met her eyes for a second before looking away, shame marring his handsome features.

Winter couldn’t believe it. _He’d slept with her while he was with another woman?_

“Wow, you’re really on a role tonight Jimmy,”

“Qrow,” James sighed.

“No, no, come on, you got anything else you wanna tell us while we’re here?”  
James glared at him slightly. “As a matter of fact.” He turned and pulled up something on the screen. “This was emailed to me this morning.” He pulled up the email, letting them read the message along with it.

_It seems you have a taste for younger women, General Ironwood. Perhaps the people of Remnant would like to see what you do in your free time?_

_I will, however, delete this video on one condition. I want Mason Boa dead by the end of the Vytal Festival, the method of his death is up to you. I want his body brought to the abandoned Emerald Harbour as proof._

_You have until the last day of the Vytal tournament. Twelve days, or I will publish this video._

_For extra incentive, should you fail to comply with my requests, I will be releasing several dozen of the Banshee Grimm into central Beacon the night of the final match._

_I’ll see you soon._

The room was silent as everyone took in the information.

“You’re being blackmailed,” Ozpin summarised, “for the arranged death of one of the most dangerous, highly guarded prisoners Polynya has ever had.”

“It gets worse,” Winter added. “Boa’s semblance is immunity. You’ll have a hard time killing him without strapping a warehouse full of explosives to his chest or he does it himself.”  
“Wonderful,” Qrow muttered, “We’ll just bomb Polynya shall we?”  
“We’re not actually going to kill him,” Glynda said.

“We’re not?”  
“I’m still up for it,” Winter muttered.

“She’s up for it.” Said Qrow, “Ironwood? You up to kill this guy?”  
“Qrow, we need to take this seriously. We need to find out where the messages came from and go from there.”  
“And if you can’t find it? What are you gonna do if we can’t find this guy?”

“We only have twelve days.” Winter added.  
“That doesn’t mean we have the right to kill him,” Glynda cut in.

“He gave up his rights when he organised the death of our team.” Winter said, getting worked up.

“That doesn’t make you his judge jury and executioner, Miss Schnee.”  
“He’s been judged by his jury; the only reason he didn’t get the death sentence was because his father cut a deal and he gave some bullshit information about Mountain Glen that didn’t even get to us on time!”

“That doesn’t mean you get to kill him because you messed up.”  
Winter glared at the older woman, who met her eyes.

“Both of you, calm down,” Ozpin said, as the only man in the room that neither woman wanted to throttle. “There will be plenty of time to point fingers later; right now, we need to figure out this mess. Is there anyone who either of you would be comfortable telling about this that would be able to track the email?”  
James ran through his list of analysts, trying to come up with any who could help.

Winter sighed. “I know someone.”  
“Can you trust them to keep this quiet?”  
“Yes.” She said, pulling out her scroll, “She’s just going to be really annoying about it.”  


 

“You slut!” Jameson laughed, throwing her arm around Winter’s shoulder.

“This isnt funny Alize,” Winter said in a harsh whisper, “And keep your voice down.”

“Why? No one’s here,” Alize looked around the empty computer lab. “You’re so lucky I was in Vale for the festival. So this guy sent you a video?”  
“I forwarded you both the email General Ironwood and I received.” Winter took a seat beside her, watching her log in with a generic username.

“I think we’re a bit past _General Ironwood_ don’t you think?” Jameson snickered. She slipped off her army jacket and dropped it on her bag, pulling her hair out of her face.  
Winter glared at her. “Are you sure this won’t be traceable?”

“Oh please. I’m the best there is; I hacked into the Atlas academy database to see if I had been accepted and they never even knew.”  
Winter gave a slight laugh, “Of course you did.”  
“Okay, this might take a while depending on how good this guy is, so you should order us dinner.” Jameson gave Winter her scroll, “I have my favourite pizza pie place on speed dial.”  
“Of course you do. I… I actually can’t stay. I’m trying to talk to Qrow; so far he hasn’t been too eager to discuss the issue.”  
“Yeah, I guess this would make anyone feel pretty shit.”  
“What do you mean?” Winter frowned. “We weren’t even together, this has nothing to do with him.”  
“Oh, you’re saying you wouldn’t care if Qrow’s last girlfriend was some beautiful, accomplished huntress he’d been mooning over since he was a student?”  
“I didn’t _moon_ over him-”

“You mooned.”  
_“–and_ we were never together. It just happened the once.”  
“Still.” Jameson leaned back in her seat, looking at Winter, “You’re saying you wouldn’t be insecure or upset if you had to watch that video? If someone had thrown your biggest insecurity – that you’re not good enough for the person you love – back in your face?”  
Winter took in the words, leaning back in her seat. “I really messed up.”  
“Everyone messes up.”  
“I can’t mess up! Schnee’s can’t mess up, people in high positions of power can’t mess up because there are severe consequences!” She ran a hand through her hair, slouching slightly. “I could lose everything I care about. Ironwood has already lost one relationship; his entire career, the legitimacy of my career, is on the line here. You think people in Atlas are just going to believe it was a one-time thing? What are they going to think? What is my sister going to think?!”  
“Well we better find this son of a bitch before he can release the video.” Jameson said calmly, “And you might want to delete Qrow’s copy; last thing we need is him finding it again.”  
Winter groaned, slumping down in her seat. A moment of silence filled the lab, the only sound being the soft taps of Jameson’s fingers on the keys.  
“I spent my entire life trying to be perfect,” Winter said softly, “I had to walk and talk perfectly, I had to be the best at everything, and it almost killed me. I finally got out of there; I made my own definition of perfect. And the one time I slip up it could ruin everything.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”  
Winter pursed her lips, sitting up and grabbed her scroll from the table. She was about to get to her feet when Jameson spoke.  
“Wait a second, how did this person send an email to Qrow and Ironwood?”  
“Isn’t that what you’re here to find out?”

“No, I mean, even if they were able to hack into Ironwood’s account unnoticed, how would they know Qrow’s number? He’s a huntsman; they lose their scrolls all the time.”  
“Qrow’s on the Phoenix renewal package; it’s the same number with every scroll.”  
“Exactly. No one uses that; it’s a terrible package.”  
“It really is, I told him he should just get a case.”  
“It’s so shit. But who would know that? Huntsmen take jobs through the message boards, so who would know his number? When was the last time he broke his scroll?”  
Winter tried to place the exact date. “Two and a half months ago, on a job for Ozpin.”  
“Has he given his number out since then?”  
“I’ll ask.”  
Winter tried to call him and got no answer. She messaged him and got a response a few minutes later.

“He hasn’t.” Winter answered, retaking her seat. “He has his email on his information, not his number.

“Okay, so it has to be someone who either hacked into his scroll – not difficult if they could hack into Ironwood’s – or someone who happens to have both their information and knows Qrow has a renewal plan.”  
“I’ll ask him to make a list,” Winter said, texting the message to Qrow.  
“Where _is_ Qrow?” Jameson asked.

“He’s going over hospital security footage, trying to narrow down the possible targets.”  
“Well, go on,” Jameson raised her leg and pushed Winter’s chair away, “Find your boy, talk it out, have make up sex and get in here tomorrow ready to find this scum bag. I’ll let you know if the search turns up anything.”  
Winter rolled her eyes, “Thank you.” She dropped some cash on the table. “Pizza’s on me.”  
“I love you!”  


 

Qrow’s search pulled up nothing, and he had moved onto confirming the alibi’s of the list of hackers on the military’s watch list.

“Anything?” James asked.  
“No.” Qrow said shortly, crossing another name of the list.

“You can’t just cross out the name, you have to give their alibi and the proof.”  
“You’re not even helping so just shut up and let me do it.”  
“I’m trying to clear my schedule so I have as much time to figure this mess out as possible.”  
“A mess you made,” Qrow muttered.

“Excuse me?”  
“Mara Kress is clear, she was in hospital recovering from heart surgery.”  
“She wasn’t a big problem anyway, and she has no connection to Oak Hollow or any of the specialists who died.”  
“Do any of them have a connection?”  
“None with the ability to hack into the military.”  
“Maybe you’re dealing with someone on the inside?” Qrow suggested. “You had a few specialists quit after the mission, right?”  
“Yes, but none of them ever showed any sign of this kind of ability, and their access is heavily blocked after they leave.”  
“Jameson got in,”  
“Jameson is the best we had; she’s a prodigy.”  
“Maybe she’s behind it,” Qrow suggested sarcastically, slumping to the floor in a tangle of long limbs.

“She has nothing to gain from this.”  
“The guy slaughtered her friends and tried to kill her; that’s enough motive for anyone. I know Winter was a second away from jumping over the partition and killing him with her bare hands.”  
“Well I guess we’re lucky you’re such a good influence on her,” James said under his breath. Qrow glared at him.

“You got something to say James?” He asked, getting to his feet.

Ironwood sighed. “I didn’t mean anything by it,”  
“Yes you did. What, you think I’m a bad influence on her? You think I’m gonna corrupt her or something?  Newsflash James, I’m not the reason she quit the military.”  
“She left because of the mission-”

“Are you serious?” Qrow cut him off. “She’s been through bad missions, she hasn’t been through someone she trusted using her as a fucking human anti-depressant.”

“You don’t know what happened, you weren’t there.”  
“Of course I was. I’ve been there a hundred times; I never reacted by sticking my dick in someone young enough to be my daughter I was in a direct position of power over!”

“Are you both done?”  
Qrow and Glynda looked over as Glynda walking into the empty classroom, Ozpin behind her.

“He started it,” Qrow said petulantly.

“I know,” said Glynda, “I saw the video.”

 

 

Qrow was still debating whether or not he would stay at Winters or give himself some space and stay at a hotel when he walked into Winter’s apartment. The coffee table and most of the lounge was covered in files she had printed out, which were covered in marker and notes. He followed the sound of someone moving around to the bedroom, where he saw Winter shoving some clothes into a black bag. Immediately his stomach dropped.

 _No_ , he thought, _if she wanted to end it she wouldn’t be leaving. It’s her apartment._

“Going somewhere?” He asked, leaning against the doorframe.

“Atlas,” She said shortly, grabbing her coat from her closet. Qrow frowned.

“Atlas? Why?”  
“I have an interview with Boa.”  
“What? I thought you said it was useless to talk to him.”  
“That was before my career, Ja- Ironwood’s career and the legitimacy of both of our positions were at risk.” She zipped up the bag and opened her desk drawer, looking for her passport.

“When do you leave?”  
Winter checked the time, “Two hours. I should be back in two days. Jameson is going to keep working the hacker angle and she’ll send me anything she needs investigated in person.”  
Qrow nodded. “Are we fighting?”  
Winter stopped packing, sighing. “I don’t know, are you still acting like a child about something that happened before we started dating?”  
“I’m not acting like a child.”  
“You are,” She slung the bag into her back, walking out of the room. As she passed him, he grabbed her forearm, pulling her close to him.

“I’m not mad at you,” He clarified, “I’m angry someone who already had too much influence over you pushed himself on you when you were vulnerable and injured. I am _annoyed_ that you didn’t tell me, because and in my experience, secrets don’t lead to anything good and it kind of pisses me of I have to spend the first weekend we’ve seen each other in over a month finding the asshole who is blackmailing you with a sex tape of you with another guy; especially a guy a hundred times better for you than me!”

He let go of her and walked off into the living room, running his hands through his hair. Winter leaned back against the doorframe, staring off into space as she took in his words.

Qrow sat down on the couch and Winter looked over at him. Pushing herself away from the door she dropped her bag and walked over, sitting at the other end of the lounge.  
“You want me to be honest?” She asked softly, her gaze downcast and off into space.

“That would be nice,” He said. She could hear the defeat in his voice.

Taking a deep breath, Winter let it out slowly and braced herself for whatever outcome would follow.

“I had… feelings for James, during my employment with the Atlasian military and my final years at the academy,” She saw him tense, but pushed on, “It was just a schoolgirl crush at first, and I brushed it off as infatuation or admiration, but after… that night, I had to face it. It was somewhat overwhelming,” She admitted softly. “After I got back from Vacuo, we agreed to talk about it, and I met him in his office after the memorial ceremony,” pain started to spread in her chest, “We talked and…”

“Fucking hell,” Qrow muttered, rubbing his face, “you slept with him again,”  
“No! I didn’t, I didn’t sleep with him,”

Qrow looked at her and it took all her willpower to meet his eye. “He kissed me.” She admitted softly. “It was just a second, I stopped it and I left.”  
Qrow looked away, taking in her admission.

“It was just… confusing. I didn’t know why he did it or what exactly he wanted from it. I had this image of him in my head and it… it clashed with what he was doing, and I didn’t know how to handle it. So I just ran. I gave up the job and moved to Vale and didn’t speak to him unless it was about the case.”  
Qrow was silent for a long time, and Winter felt her anxiety grow with every minute that passed.

“You had feelings for him?” He asked. Winter hesitated, then nodded.  
“Do you still?”  
Winter frowned at the question. “What? Of course not? Are you serious?” she stood, looking down at him. He met her gaze, his eyes filled with pain and empty at the same time.

“Do you really think I would do that to you?” She asked softly. Qrow looked away, not answering for a minute.

“I don’t know.”  
“Well I wouldn’t. We slept together and we kissed; that’s it. It was a stupid mistake and I didn’t tell anyone because I was ashamed of it.” She felt herself getting emotional, the pain turning to fury and hurt. “I’m not in love with him, and I haven’t had feelings for him since before I let myself get involved with you. Whether you believe it or not, I love you. You are the only man I’ve ever been in love with, and the only person I’ve let close enough to love me. You know about this isn’t going to change that or what we have; at least not on my part.”  
Qrow looked back at her, seeing the tears shining in her eyes and the seriousness in her face. He sighed, standing up.  
“I’m sorry,” he said softly, “I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you; this has nothing to do with me.”  
“Yes is does,” Winter said, tears tightening her throat and slipping into her voice. “But not like you think. I need you, now. I’m scared, and I don’t know what I’m going to do if the video gets out.”

Qrow took her hands gently in his own.

“Whatever happens, whatever you decide to do, you won’t be alone.” He promised.  
A tear slipped down her cheek and she stepped forward, closing the distance between then and wrapping her arms around his neck. Qrow hugged her back tightly, his hand in her hair as she let the tears fall, staining his shirt.

“I love you.” She said brokenly.

“I love you too.” He hugged her tighter, “I love you so much.”

“He’s not better for me,” She said through the tears. “I don’t want him.”  
“Good,” He pulled back, cupping her cheeks in his hands, resting his forehead against hers, “Because I’m not letting you go without a fight.”  


 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who reviewed especially Masenlakain I'm so glad you're liking the story!  
> Keep the reviews coming guys I love hearing your feedback


	5. Chapter 5

If Winter had to write a list of all the things she had had to do in her life despite not wanting to, it would take longer than twelve days.

Ironwood had given her access to a priority military airship that took her straight to Atlas, and she spent the entire flight going over every detail from Boa’s case.

“You’re going to drive yourself crazy with that,”  
“I need to prepare.” She said, her eyes glued to her scroll.   
Qrow looked at her from his seat beside her, taking her hand. “Winter, you’ve already seen all of it. If you’re going to obsess why don’t you focus on what you’re going to ask him when we get there?”  
Winter hesitated before relenting. It was true, she knew the entire case off by heart, and whatever connection or hint she was looking for likely wasn’t going to pop up the hundredth time she saw the same court video.

They landed in Atlas and were escorted an hour and a half outside of the city in a military vehicle.

“Seems a bit over the top,” Qrow muttered.   
“It’s the only above ground car that can make it to Polynya.”  
“And why did we have to go above ground?”  
“The underground transit system was damaged earlier this year; the tracks are damaged, and the trains can’t use them.”  
“You’d think that would be a priority.”  
“It was, but the problem was a lot bigger than they thought; icicles broke through the tunnel, whenever they clear it up more keeps breaking in.”  
The car came to a stop and the driver turned to them. “It’s on foot from here ma’am,” He said in a gruff voice. Winter and Qrow got out, wrapping their coats tighter around themselves.

“Wait, what?”  
“What?” Winter asked, looking at him.

“Where is it?” Qrow asked, looking out at the barren wasteland before him.

“Underground.” Their driver said, pulling out a large gun and strapping it to his back. “This way.”  
Qrow and Winter followed him for a few minutes until he stopped at a grey bunker door.

“This is polynya?” Qrow muttered, somewhat underwhelmed.

“This is the entrance.” Winter said.

“And the only exit,” Their driver scanned his identification and the door opened. They stepped inside, and Qrow was dismayed to discover it was just as cold inside, if not worse. The only difference was that he could see his foggy breath in front of his face without the harsh winds snatching it away.

“Come on then,” The soldier left his gun on a rusty hook and led them to the only door in the concrete room, pushing in a code to what looked like a completely dead and ancient keypad and waited.

After almost a full minute in silence the doors finally opened, and Qrow felt dread in his stomach.

“I’m not going in there.”  
“It’s just for appearances Qrow,” Winter took his hand and pulled him into the dingy elevator.

“This thing is ancient,” He muttered.

“It’s a defensive measure,” Their escort explained shortly.

“Is the defence that the chain is going to snap and kill us?”

Winter smacked his chest.

They rode for a few more minutes, and Qrow’s leg was starting to bounce with anxiety as the doors finally opened. They stepped out, and Qrow’s eye’s widened.

“This,” Winter said, falling into place beside him, “Is Polynya.”  
they stood at the heavy glass door, looking down at the cells that seemed to go down into the earth, further than Qrow could see. Every cell had glass, metal, and the occasional dust bars keeping the worst of the worst locked away.

“Miss Schnee,”   
Winter turned, seeing a tall middle-aged man in a suit walking over to them.   
“Mr Conway,” Winter shook his hand.

“A pleasure to meet one of Atlas’ finest,” He said with a charming smile, his eyes glancing down her body. Winter refrained from rolling her eyes at his weak attempt at flattery. She noticed he hadn’t so much as glanced at Qrow since he’s arrived.

“I’d like to see Boa as soon as possible,” She said, straight to the point.  
“Of course, right this way.”  
He led the way down brightly lit metal halls to a medium sized room.

Mason Boa sat against the far wall. He was much paler than he had been in the pictures Qrow had seen of him before the trial. His neat, dirty blonde hair had grown messy and long, falling limp down to his shoulders. He looked like he had been through hell.

Good.

Winter hesitated only slightly before walking into the room. Mason Boa, her former teammate and friend sat locked against the far wall. His hands were in shackles that kept his palms flat on the tabletop, needles in his wrists to keep his aura at a low and block his semblance; a somewhat vicious practise that was banned everywhere but the four highest security prisons.

Gone was the perfect tan of his skin and his meticulously upkept hairstyle, and when he finally looked up at her as she sat across from him, she could see the dullness in his once shining magenta eyes. Silence hung tensely in the air, all words suddenly vacant from her mind.

“I was wandering if you would come.” He said, his weak voice rough and harsh after months of disuse. “I didn’t think you would. The others came. Didn’t think you would.”  
Winter looked down at her notebook, trying to think of something to say.

“Don’t ask why I did it,” He said before she could speak. “More persuasive people than you have tried.”  
“I don’t care why you did it.” Winter said honestly. “I wasn’t going to come. However, in light of recent event’s, I need some information. I can offer to… ease your stay in exchange.”  
“Oh, that’s something no one else has offered,” He said sarcastically, his voice barely more than a whisper.

“I can have you moved to solitary confinement and have you taken off the medication.”  
Boa finally looked up at her, showing no reaction, before laughing slightly. “You’re lying.”  
Winter pulled out a document, holding it up to show him. “Signed by General Ironwood himself. Effective as soon as I leave the building.”  
Boa considered it for a long time, before answering. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. On one condition.”  
“What’s that?” Winter humoured him.

Boa leaned forward, looking Winter dead in the eye.

“I want you to kill me.”  


Winter looked back at Qrow, both surprised and confused. She looked back at Boa.

“What?”  
“I wanted the death sentence. I would have gotten it too, if my father hadn’t bribed the judge.”  
“How am I supposed to do that?”  
“There are no camera’s in here,” He looked around. Qrow followed his gaze and sure enough the room was completely absent of security. “You slip me something that mimics natural causes and walk out.”  
“You want me to kill you? And why would I do that?”  
“Because it’s the only way you’re going to get anything out of me.” He leaned back into his chair. “Either way, I’ll be dead by the end of the year. I have a heart condition, and it sure as hell isn’t being treated here.”  
“Wow really?” Qrow said, “Your heart condition isn’t top priority?”  
Winter gave him a warning look and he shut up.

“I’ll think about your offer.” Winter said carefully. “In the meantime, you need to give me some indication that whatever information you have is worth the trouble.”  
Boa raised his head slightly. “What do you want to know?”  
“Were you paid to forge the reports?”  
“No.”  
Winter blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting an answer, let alone an honest one.

“Why did you do it then?”  
Boa didn’t answer.

“Has there been anyone particularly… vocal, in their disappointment at your life sentence?”  
“Besides all of Atlas?” He asked. “Not that I’m aware of. The families were pretty devastated, but other than that I haven’t had much contact with the public.”  
“Has anyone visited you?” Qrow asked.

Boa scoffed. “This is Polynya. Civilians aren’t exactly allowed to walk in. Why are you suddenly here anyway? I’m already locked up, what do you need this stuff for?”  
“That’s classified information.”  
“It’s classified but Qrow Branwen’s allowed to be here?”  
“He’s involved. You, however, are not, and if you want to be taken off the medication, I suggest you stay focused.”  
“Yes ma’am.”  
“Did you decide on your own to forge the documents or was there… incentive?”  
Boa didn’t answer.

“I asked you a question Mason.” Winter said, her voice the kind of calm that gave Qrow chills.

Boa didn’t say anything and Winter packed up her files, standing up. She turned to leave.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Boa asked urgently.

“If you’re not going to answer my questions I’m not going to waste any more time on you.” Winter said, opening the door and walking out. Qrow stood to follow.

“Okay, okay wait!” Boa called. Winter walked back into the doorway.   
Boa hesitated, working his jaw.

“Roman Torchwick.”  
“What about him?” Winter asked.   
“He told me to forge the reports. He sent someone, some girl to take care of the huntsmen.”

“What did she look like?”  
“I don’t know, he just said to leave them at the airstrip and _she_ would take care of them.”  
“He said ‘she’?” Qrow asked, “Not ‘they’? It was just the one?”  
“That’s what he said.”  
Winter walked back in and closed the door, taking her seat across from him.

“Why did you do it?”  
Boa took a deep breath, and she could see the battle going on in his mind.   
“Blackmail. They had… incriminating pictures of me.”  
“What were the natures of the pictures?”  
Boa dropped his head back, his leg bouncing under the glass table. “I was… involved with someone my parents wouldn’t have approved of.”  
Winter felt a sudden surge of anger.

“Wait a second,” Qrow said, walking over to the table, “you led your teammates to their deaths because you were afraid your parents were going to get mad at you?” He voiced Winter’s thoughts.

“You don’t get it!” Boa cried, his voice cracking under the effort, “He was a faunus, he was married! If those pictures got out it would have humiliated my family; they would have disowned me or worse, and you can’t be in the military if you’re involved in that kind of scandal! That’s just how it is in Atlas.”  
“You murdered them,” Winter said softly. “You killed Cyan. You killed Yelaina, you killed Pearl, Akihito and Amaya. You tried to kill the rest of us, you _betrayed our country, our friends,_ so your parents wouldn’t cut you off.”

Boa looked away from her in shame.

Winter was on her feet in a flash, reaching over the table and grabbing him by the collar.

“ _You fucking coward_!” She screamed, “How could you be so fucking selfish?!”

She punched him in the mouth, and Qrow grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back.

“Okay calm down.” He said as she fought to get out of his arms.

_“It should have been you!”_

“I know!” Boa yelled, blood dropping from his lip. Winter stopped fighting Qrow, looking at Boa in surprise at the outburst.

“I know it should have been me! I was a coward! I was afraid! Torchwick came to me and- and he showed me those things! He said he’d release them in the city if I didn’t kill the specialists! I didn’t know what to do so I just did what I was told,” Tears began to stream down his face as he finally confessed, the weight of the last year too much to handle. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I just… I didn’t know what else to do,”  
Winter untensed in Qrow’s arms, suddenly tired as she’d let out what she’d been holding in for so long.

The only sound in the room was Boa’s sobs and Winter’s heavy breathing as she slowly calmed.

Eventually she picked up the file on the table and left without another word. Qrow gave one final look at the broken man at the table and followed her.

“So what now?” Qrow asked, falling into place beside her as they made their way through the barren halls.

“Now,” Winter said calmly, “we kill him.”

 

 

Back at their hotel Winter sent through a list of people that had visited or requested visitation of Boa for Jameson to analyse before disappearing into the bathroom.

“Win?” Qrow called, knocking gently on the door. “You’ve been in there a while?”  
He didn’t get a response. He leaned against the door.

“I know this was a lot to take in. Can I please come in?”  
He saw the glow of her glyph and heard a click at the door and slowly opened it, walking in and kneeling down beside the bathtub. Winter was sitting in the cold water, her legs pulled to her chest and resting her head on her knees looking away from him, her damp hair floating in the water around her. The only light in the room came from the glow of her scroll and a candle on the sink.

“You okay?” he asked softly, leaning against the side.

Winter shook her head slightly, moving one arm around her legs to wipe her face, sniffling.

“I’m so sorry Winter. Do you want to talk about it?”  
Winter shook her head no.

Qrow sat there for a long minute, just being there for her before an idea occurred to him.

“Okay, sit forward,”  
“What?” Winter asked, finally raising her head.

“Sit forward. I’m gonna get in.”  
“You hate cold water.” Winter said, her voice thick with tears.

“This isn’t about me,” He said, pulling off his shirt. “Move forward.”  
Winter gave him enough space to get in behind her. He did, somewhat regretting the tactic as he was reminded how cold she had the water but pushed on. She needed him.

Winter leaned back against him and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked again.  
Winter shrugged. “I don’t know what to say.”  
“You can say whatever you want.”  
Winter didn’t speak for a long time, more tears slipping down her face, sending out ripples as they splashed into the bath.

“I just… I thought there would be a good reason. Some justification” She started softly, “After everything he did, I still wanted to believe he wasn’t evil; he wasn’t this monster the media was making him out to be. But he was selfish, and he was a coward. I lost people I cared about because of him and I still-” she took a shuddering breath, her voice braking as the tears flowed freely, “I still wanted to believe he had a good reason. What is wrong with me? What could possibly justify what he did?” She leaned forward, her fingers slipping in her hair and gripping it as she sobbed. “People keep using me and hurting me and still want them to care? I still want to see the best in them?! Why am I like this?”

“Calm down,” Qrow said, “Deep breaths,”

Winter leaned back into him and tried to match his breathing. Qrow held her close and wiped the tears off her face, kissing her cheek.

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” He said. “It’s not your fault that people hurt you, it’s theirs,”  
“Then why does it keep happening?” She asked. She sounded so upset and it broke his heart

“Because Atlas is filled with pieces of sh-… selfish men,” Qrow took a breath, trying to calm himself down before he got worked up, “You didn’t choose to be born here, or a Schnee, but you’ve made the best of it, and I’m so proud of you. I love you, and I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure they never hurt you again.”

“What are we going to do now?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean are we really going to kill him?”  
“We’ve both killed people before.”  
“I know, but… it just doesn’t feel right. It feels like an assassination.”  
“Win, you were a Black Ops liason; you’ve done assassinations before.”  
“I’ve done ordered assassinations of dangerous terrorists,”  
“So you don’t want to kill him because it won’t be cleared by the military and because he can’t hurt anyone anymore?”  
“I don’t…know. No. He murdered those people. Amaya had just gotten married. Cyan was going to be her sister’s maid of honour.” She took a shaky breath as the tears started to fall again, “Akihito was the only one supporting his parents in Haven. The pain he created is never going to stop.”  
“You don’t have to do this yourself.” He told her softly. “Ironwood can hand over the pills and we can wait at the harbour. No one is going to question him.”  
Winter turned and tucked her head under his chin.   
“Can we just… not talk about it until tomorrow?” She asked softly.

Qrow nodded, hugging her close.

“Qrow?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Do you want to get out now?”  
“Oh God yes please can we?”  
Winter laughed slightly, sitting up and letting him get out. He held his hand out to her and pulled her out of the bathtub, handing her a towel.

“How do you stand water that cold?” He asked, shivering slightly as he dried himself off.   
“I’m used to it,” She smiled softly. She dressed in warm clothes and got into bed. Qrow climbed in beside her, holding her close.   
Winter’s scroll vibrated, and she groaned into Qrow’s chest. Rolling over she picked it up. It was James.

Declining the call, Winter turned off her scroll.

“What was that?” Qrow asked.

“Nothing,” She sighed, settling back into his arms.

 

 

They had no leads. Two and a half days and no leads. The only thing they had going for them was that Jameson had narrowed down the email’s origin and eliminated the hackers from the list of suspects.

“I put a trip wire in the file after the malfunction last year,” She said, tapping away, “It would have alerted the IT unit or you if it was tripped – it wasn’t tripped, so they must have gotten your information elsewhere.”  
“And the cross-reference of mine and Qrow’s interactions?”  
“There was a few specialists missions, but so far I haven’t found someone still alive that would have the advanced abilities to hide a trace like this. All the soldiers I could find with motive were accounted for and have been identified on the military surveillance recordings.”

Ironwood looked at her for a moment. “Have you slept since you got here?”  
Jameson looked up at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were disarrayed.

“No, why?”  
“I think you might need some sleep.”  
Jameson frowned, “Why?”  
“You look like hell.”  
“I look awesome.”  
“Stand up.”  
Jameson stood up. Immediately her legs gave out and she fell to the floor.

“Have you been using your semblance this entire time?”  
“It’s fine, as long as I have food and coffee it’ll replenish itself.”  
“That’s not how it works Alize.” He sighed. He’d had to coach a lot of his specialists out of their more destructive tendencies, but Jameson had never seemed to take his advice to heart. It was why she had been put with Winter in the first place – despite the walls she had up to keep people out, she had a way with the soldiers under her command.

“I’ll be okay.”  
“You have a spare room on the second floor.” He held out a key card. “Go, get some sleep. You’re not going to be any good to us burnt out.”  
Jameson slipped back into her seat, considering his words. “Can I finish my pizza?”  
“Sure.” He put the card on the desk and walked out. He needed a break from this.

He pulled open the door to the computer lab, stepping into the hall. He’d barely lifted his foot when the door slammed shut behind him, pushing him into the hallway.

“Very mature,” He muttered. Glynda didn’t look at him as she walked past.

James sighed, rubbing his face. “Can we please talk about this?” He asked, following her out the side to an empty, partially outside hallway.

“Can you jump from the window?” She asked. He glanced over the edge at the four story drop and very much wished he hadn’t pissed off a telepath.

“Glynda, please,” He caught her hand which she pulled back sharply, turning to glare at him.

“No, we cannot talk about this because there is no ‘we’ and there is nothing to talk about.”  
“I’m sorry; I never meant to hurt you-”  
“You never meant for me to find out.” She cut him off angrily.

“It was one mistake. I wasn’t in my right mind after the mission and she was there and you weren’t-”

“You’re saying this is my fault?!” She interrupted again.

“No! No, I’m just…”  
“Well you should have thought about that before starting something with someone in another country James; there are going to be times when you need them, and they aren’t there. God, do you think I didn’t miss you? Do you think there weren’t times after an absolutely horrific job I didn’t wish I could see you and take my mind off it? Because there were, and I didn’t react by sleeping with someone thirty years younger than me! For God’s sake James, you’ve known her since she was a child!”

“I know,”  
“Well do you know what it’s going to look like if it gets out? You think people are going to believe that was the first time? Or that you haven’t been… grooming her for this?!”

“I wasn’t, you know I wouldn’t-”  
“Do I?”  
He looked her in the eye and saw all the betrayal and anger she held towards him.   
“Yes. You know I’m not that kind of person.”  
“I don’t know what kind of person you are. I know what kind of person I _thought_ you were, and he wouldn’t have sex with one of his officers because he was upset! Not to mentioned what it looks it in the video.”  
“What are you talking about?” He asked, wandering how the video could possibly get worse.

“I saw the whole thing James, and it hardly captured her as an enthusiastic participant.”  
The confusion cleared away from his face, followed immediately by controlled anger and indignation.

“I would never force myself on her,” He said lowly, deadly serious.

“Really? Because it looked like a pretty gray area to me. It sure as hell didn’t look like she was enjoying herself.”  
“It wasn’t rape. We spoke about it afterwards.”  
“Are you in love with her?”  
“No!”  
“Do you have feelings for her?”  
“No.” He repeated firmly.

“Has anything happened since?”  
“No, nothing else happened.”  
“I guess you’re pretty fucking unlucky then huh?”  
“I guess so.”  
The fight came to a dead stop as they both tried to calm down, James so he wouldn’t say anything he’s regret and Glynda so she didn’t choke him to death.

“Ozpin expects you to give an appearance at the match tomorrow.” She said. She turned and began to walk away.

“Glynda, please,” He called after her. She stopped. “I’m sorry. How can I ever make it up to you?”  
“Stay away from me,” She said immediately, “General Ironwood.”  
She turned and walked away, without so much as a glance back.

 

 

James returned to his room, depressed under the weight of the events of the last few days. He sat on his bed, pulling out his scroll. He debated with himself for a few minutes before opening it, going into his emails and finding the video. Hesitating for just a moment more James clicked on the video.

It started with the kiss. The stupid, goddamn kiss that started it all. She’d kissed him back.

She hadn’t said anything as he pulled off their clothes or laid her down on the bed. He could hear the noises she’d made as he touched her, the noises he had, in the moment taken for consent.

Eight months later, however, with a clear mind and hindsight clearing his vision he realised just how bad it looked.

 _Had he forced himself on her? Winter was one of the strongest women he knew; surely she would have said something_.

He wasn’t an idiot; he knew she had had feelings for him. It had happened occasionally – someone would mistaken extra attention as romantic interest or just develop an unrequited love from it.

Winter knew it could never happen. She would have accepted that a long time ago.

_Had he used the knowledge that she was attracted to him against her? Taken her to bed because he knew she would consider herself lucky she had been chosen?_

His attention turned back to the video as he heard her cry out. Winter was looking away in the general direction of where ever the voyeur had been hiding.

She really was beautiful.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He asked himself, closing the video and throwing the scroll behind him. He needed to talk to Winter.

 

 

 

 

Qrow woke up the next morning to Winter shaking his arm. He opened his eyes to see his fully dressed girlfriend kneeling on the bed beside him, her laptop open in her arm.

“Wake up, I think I have an idea.”   
“What?” He murmured.

“I think I have an idea on how to administer the poison and get Boa out of prison.”  
Qrow sat up, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up. “Great, hit me with it.”

She turned and sat next to him, showing him her laptop screen.   
“Okay, so according to the files I had Ironwood pull Boa isn’t being treated for his heart condition, but he is given occasional injections of a drug that counteracts the drug he’s being administered to stop his aura and semblance; it’s street name is Blitz. Teenagers and criminals use it to give them an extra boost of aura, when it’s taken with a completely replenished aura it can make you feel high.”  
“I think I’ve heard of that,” Qrow said, leaning against her shoulder to see the screen better.

“But according to the last few months of his check ups the Blitz hasn’t been helping with the pain, which shouldn’t even be necessary since his semblance is immunity. What I was thinking is Ironwood orders another nurse to give a second opinion, we slip him the drugs to send him into a seizure, the nurse signs his death certificate and they send him down to the incinerator-”

“Um, the what?!”  
“The incinerator,” Winter repeated herself, met with Qrow’s confused look. “Where they dispose of the dead bodies?”  
“Why… why do they have an incinerator?”  
“That’s just what they call the furnace where they cremate the bodied after death. Most of the worlds worst terrorists don’t really have family eager to claim the body.”  
“But Boa’s family is still defending him,” Qrow pointed out.  
“Not after we send them the pictures Torchwick blackmailed him with.”  
Qrow stared at her. “What?”  
“They were in his company emails!” Winter said excitedly. “We couldn’t get a subpoena to access his email with his family company during the trail but Jameson hacked them and the pictures were there!”  
Qrow nodded slowly, taking the laptop and putting it on the bed. “How long have you been up?”  
“What does that have to do with anything?”  
“You’ve been looking slightly over my shoulder the whole conversation,” He put a finger on her chin, turning her gaze until she was looking at him, “Your eyes are bloodshot.”  
“We need to start working on this as soon as possible,” She reached for the laptop but Qrow caught her hands.   
“Win, Win; what did we talk about? About overworking?”  
“This is different. You want my sex tape plastered over every screen in remnant? No? Then let’s get this thing going!” Winter grabbed the laptop, tried to climb off the bed, got her feet tangled and slipped off the edge and onto the floor.

“Shit are you okay?” Qrow asked, shuffling over to her side of the bed.

“I’m fine! The laptop’s fine,” She got up, holding the laptop up to prevent it from hitting the ground.

“Come here,” He took the laptop again, putting it behind him and pulling her onto his lap, “Look, I know you’re scared about this; I’m scared too. But running yourself into the ground isn’t going to help. You _need_ to sleep.”  
“But-”

“No buts. We’ll go over what you’ve found out, then you’re going back to sleep while I get everything ready and call Oz.”  
Winter frowned at him. “I’m not one of your nieces Qrow,”  
“No, because they know how important it is to get their rest during a job,” He said, putting his arm under her legs, picking her up and carrying her into the living room.

“Put me down,” She laughed. Qrow kissed her and put her down on the lounge, jumping over the back and sitting with her.

“Okay,” he said, “So how are we gonna find a nurse to look the other way when we do all this shady shit?”  
“Cyan’s younger sister is a nurse; I’ve made some calls and apparently she lost a lot after her sister died. She’s been with family in Vacuo since her engagement ended, but she’s in Atlas to return to work. She’s agreed to meet with us this afternoon we leave in a few hours.”  
“Have you got the drugs?”  
“Karloff dropped them off this morning,”  
“It’s seven thirty,” Qrow muttered.

“They’ll knock Boa out until we reach the harbour.”  
“Have you come up with an official report?”  
“Officially I had a change of heart, went to see Boa who confessed to working for Torchwick due to the pictures which were sent from an unidentified location to Boa’s email as proof; Jameson isn’t an officer but she still takes liaison computer jobs since she’s the best the military has ever had so Ironwood can assign her to the case, she can file out the report with the information we gathered, I can write up my report and you and our nurse can witness it and since no one really cares about the death of a backstabbing murderer and since his information has already been processed at Polynya we’ll just need Ironwood to give an official statement most of those deaths are covered up anyway.” She was talking so fast he needed a minute to process all of the information.  
“And if someone does look into it?”  
“They’ll need Ironwood’s permission for the actual case file, which we will triple check is airtight before submitting, or the warden’s for his prison file which will show minimal information.”

“And when they ask why we were escorting the nurse in anyway?”  
“She’s a military nurse with a low security level who specialises in aura’s; she doesn’t have any actual self defence training so Ironwood asked us to escort her after I told him I was going back.”  
“So we need to make that email.”  
“I already sent it.” She pulled up the email. Qrow read it.   
“Looks good. Did he respond?”  
“Yes, with an email confirming Lavender La Rue’s arrival in Atlas and her clearance to visit Polynya escorted.”  
“Don’t you have to be working for the military to escort someone on their behalf?”  
“I printed out the papers and signed them before we left; Ironwood should have signed them by now.”  
“How is Jameson doing all of this so fast?”  
“I had the papers printed out just in case I ever needed them.”  
“Of course you did.”  
“Most specialists don’t have their semblances on file in case we’re ever hacked. Also, her semblance is the ability to control technology.”

“That makes sense. Anything else?”  
“I don’t think so. I’ve set up the television, so we can facetime Beacon to debrief them on the plan and brainstorm.”  
“Sounds good. Come on,” Qrow picked her up again carrying her back into the bedroom.

“No, Qrow I have to do the debriefing,” she whined.

“I’ve got your notes, I’ve got the files, I can handle it.” He assured her, lying her down on the bed and unzipping her boot.  
“But what if-”

“If something comes up I’ll wake you.” He promised, throwing the shoe behind him and taking off the other one.  Otherwise, I can handle it.”

“Are you sure? I could wait until after,”  
“You absolutely can not wait until after; your eyes are redder than mine.” He pulled off her jeans. “Shirt.”  
Winter unbuttoned her shirt and handed it over to him in exchanged for one of his black t-shirts she had stolen months ago to sleep in. Winter put it on and looked at him. He raised an eyebrow and she huffed, lying down and getting under the covers.

He sat down beside her, leaning over her.

“You know I’m just doing this because I don’t want another accident like Xian right?”

Winter sighed, nodding. “I’m sorry I’m being difficult.”  
“You’re always difficult,” He kissed her, “I can manage difficult. Just don’t get stupid, that’s my job.”  
Winter smiled, stroking his cheek. She leaned up and kissed him again. “I love you.”  
“I love you too. Now get some sleep, we’ve got a big afternoon planned.”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if you guys are enjoying the story and want me to keep posting.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I completely forgot to upload the chapter. oops. I guess that's a con of finishing the story before you publish it; the constant stress isn't there to remind you

Ironwood and Ozpin wrote out the necessary paperwork for their scheme.

“James?” Ozpin said after a few hours of silence.  
“Yes?”  
“Do you think whoever is blackmailing you is connected to Torchwick?”  
“They would have to be. wouldn’t they?”  
“Not necessarily; if they have the ability to hack into your email and Qrow’s scroll and keep their identity this well-hidden. Not to mention they didn’t make a move until Torchwick was captured and the connection between them was made.”  
“Well if it is them the threat of releasing the Grimm into the city is a lot more real; they know enough about the creatures to get them to Oak Hollow.”

“What if they were already there?”  
“That would make them incredibly lucky; however they weren’t. we found a report from several travellers who report they took refuge in the ruins two weeks before the ruins. They were there for a week and didn’t see a single Grimm. They only left when they heard airships and people coming towards the town. They thought it was the military so they cleared out, however it was several weeks too early.”  
Ozpin frowned, looking up from his documents. “Why wasn’t that included in the trial?”  
“We had Boa’s confession; we didn’t need it. People wanted him locked up, they didn’t care how he did it.”  
Ozpin nodded, putting the files down and leaning forward slightly on his desk. “If it’s not them, we have to consider the possibility that they’re bluffing. And if it is, there’s a very real chance that they will publish the video anyway, not to mention the fact you’ll be involved in the murder of a prisoner. Your career at the very least will be over, not to mention hers. I doubt her father is going to bail her out.”  
“No,” Ironwood agreed, “Which is why I’ll be taking the blame.”  
Ozpin frowned. “What are you talking about?”  
“If this gets out the story will be that I received the email, asked Winter to visit Boa in an attempt to get through to him and give the families some closure, I attended the follow up with the nurse and administered the seizure inducing drugs and threw the body into the incinerator after the nurse signed his death certificate.”  
“You’re a General James; you can’t go missing for two days and have it gone unnoticed.”  
“I won’t be missing; officially, I’ll be in here with you discussing our next move against Salem.”

“You want me to lie for you so you can kill someone?”  
“If you wouldn’t mind.”  
Ozpin was silent for a moment, mostly just to mess with James. “Okay then.”  


 

Winter was pulled out of her worrying by Qrow’s hand slipping into hers.

“Stop worrying, it’s going to be okay.” He assured her.

“I’m not worrying.”  
“Your legs shaking.”  
Winter looked down and sure enough, her leg was bouncing.

“That’s because you do it when you’re nervous. Look what you did to me!” She smacked him.

“Sorry,” He said, trying not to laugh and turning onto yet another frozen road. “But seriously, relax. We’re just going to talk to her and organise the job. You distract her, I’ll switch out the morphine for the drugs, she administers it after the fit starts and it’s done. We’ll escort her back to the city and catch the shady, back alley ride to the harbour and meet Ironwood and Jameson for the drop.”

Winter calmed down as he ran over the plan.

“This just… doesn’t feel right.”  
“Sometimes you have to take the law into your own hands. I’ve done it.”  
Winter looked over at him, debating whether or not she wanted an explanation. “Really?”  
“Yeah. I had this job a few years back. We were supposed to bring in this guy; insanely dangerous. He would capture people and put them in these homemade pits with Grimm to see how they would react. Half the people he caught were kids; the last girl he took was the same age as Ruby,” He trailed off, taking a deep breath as he relived the memories.

“I remember that case.” Winter said softly. “Elias Mavros.”

Qrow nodded. “I found him. He might have been a sick fuck, but he couldn’t fight for shit. The order specifically said not to kill him, because they wanted to know how he managed to get so many Grimm into captivity. But I had him. He was just lying there, begging me not to kill him. I grabbed his hood, and I dragged him over to the pit and I threw him in. He had a pack of beowolves down there. Whatever method he was using to stop the Grimm attacking him didn’t work then; they tore him apart in seconds.”

Qrow parked and turned off the car, taking a minute. Winter sat in silence, processing the information. _Qrow had killed someone without the ability to fight back._

Oddly enough, she found her opinion of him hadn’t changed.

“I don’t know if what we’re doing is right, but I know it needs to be done.”  
“Doesn’t this make us no better than him? He led those people to their deaths because of some pictures and a threat. If the threat is real, we should be preparing for it.”  
“This is different,”  
“How is it different?!”  
“It’s different because Vale is crawling with soldiers and huntsmen from all over the world.”  
“They’re children! What if the Banshee’s are released and something happens to your nieces? Or my sister, or their friends? There’s something different about those things Qrow. We were the best Atlas had and we only killed three of them,”  
“Ironwood has hundreds of sentinels around the city and Karloff is looking into any Grimm exportation around Vale and Mountain Glen has been secured; there’s no way they’re getting into the city and if they do, we’ll be ready for them. Besides, we’re not actually killing him.”  
“Not initially, but it’s not like we can just return him to Polynya.”  
“He wants to die; we just need to give him the opportunity to… take matters into his own hands.”  
Winter sighed, leaning forward and rubbing her face.

“I just… I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with this. All I’ve ever needed before was Ironwood’s orders and I could do it but this… just seems worse. I mean I didn’t _enjoy_ it before, but it seemed legal, it felt like I was helping people if they were still out there; Boa’s not out there he’s in a prison cell wasting away which is where he should be.”  
“Well you’ve never known them personally before.”  
They sat in silence for a minute before he spoke again. “Is there a chance you don’t want to do this because you want him to suffer?”  
“I don’t know,” She groaned. “Maybe? Partially? Are we horrible people?”  
“Possibly, but we’re huntsmen; it comes with the territory.”  
Winter leaned back in her seat, looking over at him, “There’s no going back from this is there?” she asked softly  
“No.” He said, lifting her hand and kissing it, “but I’m gonna be right beside you the whole time. We’re in this handbasket to hell together.”  
Winter smiled softly, leaning over and kissing him. “I love you.”  
“I love you too,” He kissed her again. “Let’s get this over with.”

They stepped out onto the street and Qrow looked around.   
“This is… nice.”  
“She’d been out of work for six months.”  
“Still, I thought all the shitty neighbourhoods were in Mantel ,”  
  
  


“She doesn’t look like Cyan,” Qrow whispered as they took a seat in the chaotic living room.

“Half-sisters,” Winter whispered back as Lavender returned to the living room.

True enough, the only similarity Winter could see between Lavender and Cyan was the blue in their eyes. Lavender was paler than her sister, and her short pale purple hair was frazzled and sticking out in all directions. She had heavy bags under her eyes and was fidgeting after she served the tea.

“Sorry about the mess,” Lavender said, “I haven’t gotten around to unpacking yet; I’ve been doing long shifts at the hospital.”  
“Oh it’s fine,” Winter brushed it off with a reassuring smile. “You should see our apartment after he has to mark finals.”  
“Hey!” Qrow held his arms out in a ‘what the hell’ gesture.

“I heard you were in Vale now,” Lavender said softly.

“Yes,” Winter nodded. “I… I needed to get away, after the job.”  
“Yeah, everything kinda… f-fell apart after I lost her.” Lavender sighed. “My fiancé left, I-I had a c-c-complete breakdown; it’s a miracle they let me keep m-my medical licence.”

“I… I’m sorry.” Winter sighed. “I suppose our request was a lot to ask.”  
“You want me to give M-Mason Boa a check-up?”  
“Yes. We wanted to give you a chance to say what you wanted to say to him.”  
Lavender took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I… went through a let of therapy in Vacuo. It was important for me to make my peace with what he had done.I- I don’t know if I’m completely there yet, but I don’t know if screaming at him is going to make me feel any better.”  
Winter nodded, “We’re not going to force you; I just wanted to give you the chance to get it off your chest, find some closure.”  
Lavender nodded, staring down at her tea and not saying anything. “M-my mother wrote t-to him everyday after he was c-captured. She st-till isn’t any closer to making peace with Cyan’s death. I… would I be able to give him her letters? Maybe it will help her, if she knew he got them.”  
“Of course.” Winter said softly, nodding.  
Lavender nodded once, smiling softly, “Okay. I-I’ll need his medical records so far.”  
Winter pulled the files out from Qrow’s bag, handing them to Lavender.

“I’ll be back the day after tomorrow with General Ironwood to escort you to Polynya in two days. My number is on the file if there’s anything you need to discuss.”  
“Th-Thank you. And Winter? I-it was nice to see you again.”  
Winter tried to force a smile. “You too, Lavender.”  
“We better get going,” Qrow spoke up. “We’ve got a meeting in Atlas.”  
“Right, of course.” They all stood, Qrow swinging his bag onto his back.   
“Take care of yourself Lavender,” Winter said before they left.

“You too.”  
  
After they left, Lavender set on her couch, nerves running through her body at seeing Mason Boa in person for the first time since his trial.

_Am I really going to do this? Am I ready for this? In just two day?_

Steeling her nerves and taking a deep breath, she grabbed her scroll and called her father.

“Hey papa, how’s mum?... Well, I just met Winter-…. Winter Schnee? Remember? She was really good friends with Cyan? Well, she offered me a chance to see Mason Boa. I was thinking I could take some of mama’s letters for him to read…. Yeah, I’ll stop by this afternoon and pick them up. I love you…. Goodbye.”  


 

“It just feels wrong to use her like this,”  
“She’s not even going to administer the actual drugs she won’t be doing anything illegal.” Qrow assured her as they stepped out onto the street.

“Well look at you!” Called a voice in the street. “Couple months shacked up with a bandit and you’re goin’ all vigilante on us,”  
Winter glared at the man leaning against the side of the car. Karloff just grinned back at her.

“What are you doing here Jason?” Qrow asked. “We’re not supposed to see each other until you pick us up.”  
“Was picking up some supplies from a buddy an’ I saw your car ou’side Lavender’s apartment.”  
“You know where she lives?”  
“Yeah, I ran into her a couple weeks ago, helped her move in. Poor things barely keeping it together.”  
“Don’t make me feel worse,” Winter muttered, shoving him aside and getting into the car. Karloff stepped up onto the sidewalk near Qrow.

“Of course you’ve got contacts in the shadiest neighbourhood in Atlas.”

Karloff chuckled. “How’s she dealing?” He asked.

“I don’t know that she is.” Qrow sighed. “I don’t know how she’s going to cope once it’s over.”  
“Well if ya need anymore help don’t be afraid to ask.”  
“You’re pretty relaxed about breaking the law,” Qrow noted, walking around to his side of the car.

“I grew up in Vacuo; breaking the law ain’t exactly a new thing for me.”  
“Yeah, me neither.”  
“Having trouble now that you gone legit? Don’t pussy out on me Branwen.”  
“Never,” Qrow chuckled, getting into the car.

“I didn’t realise you two were buddies,” Winter said, looking forward.

“You gonna sulk about that now too?”  
Winter glared at him as he pulled out. She let out a breath and relented. “Sorry. Difficult.”  
“I know.” He took her hand. “Deep breaths. This’ll be over soon.”  


 

 

Winter was banned from technology since it made her fidgety until they got back to their hotel, so the first thing she did upon walking inside was call Jameson.

“Have you found anything?”  
“I’ve been able to narrow it down to a circle, unfortunately it includes a large portion of Northern Vale and Mistral and lower Mantel.”  
“Wonderful,” She sighed, sitting on the bed, “is there any good news?”  
“You’re plan is well in play,” She said, putting the scroll on loudspeaker in the empty computer lab. “Ironwood has secured our alibi’s and the reports are ready to be uploaded. He’s going to be on the ship to Atlas tomorrow morning so he should land in Atlas early the morning you head to Polynya. Karloff is standing by with his ship ready to get you guys to the Emerald Harbour, which means you have about four hours to get Lavender back to her hotel and meet them at the ship.”  
“We can make the trip in two and a half if there’s decent weather and I use me semblance on the trip back.”

“Well it’s Summer in Atlas so you should be clear right?”  
“We should be,” Winter said, pulling up the weather report for the next week. “Forecast is clear.”

“Good. Now, you can do this. Don’t bitch out on us.”  
Winter rolled her eyes. “You all seem so fine with killing him,” She muttered.   
“Yeah, well he’s a terrible dude. The only reason he isn’t dead is because his father bribed the judge. He took the law into his hands; we’re just taking it back. Think of this as a black ops mission. He needs to pay for what he did.”  
“I know,” Winter said. She froze as it sunk in. “I know. This is what we have to do.”  
“Good. Now for the bad news,”  
“What bad news?” Winter asked, panic flashing through her.   
“Turn on the news.”

Winter turned on the television and called Qrow into the room. After a minute the story came on.

“Six people are in recovery after being near fatally injured in Vale. Early yesterday morning Lee Zinc was attacked in northern vale by a Grimm when he was returning home from a night out with friends. The Grimm, spotted briefly on a street camera is believed to be the same responsible for the attack on the Atlasian Elite Specialists unit late last year. Zinc only survived after several huntsmen stepped in after hearing his screams. The Grimm only retreated after an additional huntress, Terra Fade managed to burn off it’s arm with dust. Policemen, Huntsmen as well as Atlas soldiers are on the look out for the Grimm, which hasn’t been spotted si-” Winter turned off the television.

“I guess they weren’t bluffing,” Jameson said softly. Winter ended the call, leaning back against the headboard.

Qrow looked over at her, slowly approaching. Winter finally looked at him.

“We have to do this.” She said softly, “If those things get into the city… Just the one almost killed five huntsmen Qrow.”

Winter’s scroll buzzed but she didn’t seem to hear it. Qrow picked it up and opened the message.

There was no name

“Winter, it’s him,” He said softly. Winter took the scroll, reading the message.

_By now you’ve seen the report. I wanted to ensure you didn’t mistaken this for a bluff, I am deadly serious._

Underneath was a link. Winter clicked on it, and her scroll made a call.

She looked at Qrow as it rang.

 _“Hello Ms Schnee,”_ Came a modified voice over the other end. Winter looked up at Qrow and he pulled out his scroll, texting Jameson.

“Who is this?  
The voice chuckled. _“I’m sure you’d like to know. You’ll find out, in time. We both have a secret to keep don’t we? I wanted to ask how the plan is going?”_

“We’ll have Mason Boa at the Harbour on the 16th. You’ll have the video?”  
_“The video is on my scroll. You can take it; I’m sure you’ll be able to tell if any copies were made.”_

“It’ll be hard to tell with someone of your skill level; our top hacker hasn’t been able to find you.”  
Another chuckle, _“There’s no need to make this complicated Ms Schnee. I have nothing against you or General Ironwood. I just want Mason Boa dead. After I see his body, I will have no further need of the video.”  
_“And what guarantee do you have we’ll let you leave afterwards?”  
_“Oh, I have that covered, don’t you worry you’re pretty little head about it. You hand over Boa, I hand over the Scroll, and we go our separate ways.”_

“You make it sound so easy,” Winter said, trying to keep him talking.

_“I’m sure finding loopholes and keeping things hushed will be easy enough for a Schnee and General in the Atlasian military. No one cares about the death of a Polynya criminal Ms Schnee. I’m sure now you’ve had plenty of time to trace this call, but you won’t. I look forward to seeing you and Mr Branwen at Emerald harbour.”_

The call ended, and Qrow called Jameson.

“Anything?” He asked.   
“No,” She said, smacking the desk in frustration, “they bounced the signal all over Remnant, they could be in the middle of Mistral for all we know.”

“Thanks anyway,” Qrow sighed, hanging up, he sat on the edge of the bed, “How has someone this good gone undetected?” He asked, running his hand through his hair.

“Maybe they have a semblance like Jameson’s,” Winter suggested.

“Just our luck,” Qrow muttered. “I’ll get dinner,”

“I’ll update Ironwood and Ozpin,”  
“Thanks,” He kissed her forehead and headed out, walking towards the nearby shops, taking the chance to clear his head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter where it all comes out. Tell me in the comments who you thought the blackmailer was! Did you see it coming?

 

 

 

 

Winter watched the report on the television. Mason’s mother and father were giving an interview about how they had finally come to accept what their son had done and had disowned him as a part of their family.

Winter rolled her eyes. They got the pictures then.

She looked back at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was up in a bun, her huntress uniform was covered by a pale blue coat and her boots were durable and suitable for the harsh snow they’d be trekking through.

Groaning in frustration Winter slipped her finger unto the elastic in her hair and pulled, her fair tresses unravelling over her shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Qrow called from the other room. A second later he appeared in the door beside her, leaning against the frame.

“I’m cutting my hair off; where’s my Sabre?”  
“You’re not cutting your hair off,” Qrow said, moving to stand between Winter and her sword, “Win, baby, you’re just frustrated.” He took her hands in his, resting her forehead against his. “You’re just stressed. Deep breaths,”

Winter took a deep breath, counting to five, and letting it out, letting the tension out of her body. “How long until we leave?”  
“Lavender’s train arrives in half an hour. We’ve got our bags, we’ve got the drugs, Karloff is waiting on site with the airship; everything is going to be fine. This time tomorrow the whole thing will be over.”  
“Will is? This is the kind of thing that haunts you your whole life.”  
“We’ll take care of it. I will do what I have to, to keep you safe” He promised, cupping her face in his hands. “Ozpin and Ironwood are working on it and Lionheart will do whatever Oz tells him. No one uses the tunnels, no one will see the ship; and Ozpin and Glynda have our alibi’s secured.”  
Winter let out a breath and slipped her hand over his.

“I love you.”  
“I love you too,” She whispered back. He kissed her, his arms wrapping around her waist to hold her close.

“We better get this thing on a roll,” He said, breaking the kiss. Winter nodded, fastening her sword to her hip and tying her hair up in a ponytail.

“Ready?”  
Winter nodded. “Ready.”  


 

Ironwood met them inside the bunker.

“Right on time,” he said as the escort closed the door behind them. He put in the code and they stepped inside, Qrow’s anxiety flaring up at the idea of five people in the small area.

“Are we sure this is safe?” Lavender asked, looking around the dingy box.

“Affirmative,” The escort said. A moment later the door opened, revealing the Elite, high tech underground prison.  
“I-I’m suddenly n-not feeling so c-c-confident,” Lavender said softly, clutching her bag tightly, looking down at the rooms filled with the worst Remnant had to offer.

“Don’t worry,” Winter assured her, “We won’t let anything happen to you.”

Lavender nodded, clutching her medical bag and followed her down the hallway. The escort opened the door and the four of them walked inside, Winter slipping a small satchel to James as she passed him.

“I will be in the hallway if he tries anything,” The escort said monotonously.

“Thank you,” Ironwood said, excusing him. He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

Boa was lying on a metal slab, his hands secured in cuffs locked into the bed and his legs in heavy irons. He looked worse than the last time they had seen him.

“Have they taken him off the Blitz?” Qrow asked, concerned the drugs would actually kill him.

“Three days ago,” Lavender said, her confidence growing as she entered her forte, reading his medical chart, “After General Ironwood ordered it.”

“Would you like to give him your letters?” Winter asked softly.

Lavender hesitated. “A-after?”  
“Of course.” Winter assured her, trying not to falter.  
Lavender opened her bag, pulling out the supplies she would need, as well as arranging what had been supplied.

“I’d like to take your blood pressure first, Mr Boa,” She said professionally.

“Go nuts, doc,” He muttered, staring up at the ceiling.

Lavender got to work, taking his blood pressure before checking his pupils.

“Mr Boa have you been in any kind of physical altercation that would cause a concussion?” Lavender asked.

“Is something wrong?” Winter asked.   
“His pupils aren’t dilating.”  
“Maybe the morphine is still in his system?” Qrow suggested.

“No; his aura would have been supressed too long, it would have fought to cleanse it out immediately. It should definitely be gone by now.”

Qrow and Winter shared a look. Winter stepped up to her former team-mate. “Mason have you taken any drugs or done anything that could cause brain damage?”  
Boa shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Lavender asked, coming up the other side. “Can you run through your day for me?”  
“Umm… I woke up… and came down here.”  
“How long have you been down here?”  
“Dunno,” he shrugged.

“Something is definitely wrong with him.” Winter muttered.

“Okay, I think we need to administer the Blitz.”  
“I’ve got it,” Ironwood said, stepping forward with the briefcase. Lavender took it and opened it, pulling out the first syringe and filling it with the blue tainted liquid.

“Mr Boa I’m going to be administering four CC’s of Blitz into your arm,” Lavender said. Winter held his arm down as she slipped in the needle. The women could see the blue drug as it slipped into his veins and into his system.

“Do you think that’ll be enough?” Ironwood asked.

“For now.” Lavender nodded, “If we overdo it and there isn’t any morphine in his body it could kill him or make him dangerous,”

They watched for a minute as the drugs worked. Boa blinked, the haze fading slightly from his eyes.

“Oh. You’re here,” he said, blinking.

“Do you have a concussion?” Winter asked.

“Probably; that asshole guard threw me into the doorhandle.”  
Lavender moved his head and saw a dark patch on the back of his head.

“You’re bleeding,” She frowned.

“Probably not, anymore.’  
“The blitz should help your aura increase, so that should heal soon.”

“I thought you were here for that?” He asked, frowning at Lavender.  
“I’m here for a check-up and to evaluate your heart condition.”  
“Oh. Not much point; I’ve read the reports of people who die here. ‘Natural causes’, right? Probably just need Ironwood to slap his signature on it and chuck it in a cabinet.”  
“No more than you deserve,” Lavender muttered, before looking slightly horrified, “I-I’m sorry! That was incredibly unprofessional.”  
“Don’t worry, it’s true,” Boa said, “for all of us. The guy next to my cell ate a guy. That’s messed up. I doubt his family cares how he dies.”  
“Hey,” Winter snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Shut up and let her work.”  
“Yes Ma’am.”  
Lavender checked his vitals, eventually getting to his heartrate. “This isn’t right,” She muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Winter asked.

“His blood pressure is normal but his heart rate is rapid. Listen,” He handed Winter the stethoscope. Winter frowned as she heard the quick succession of heart beats.  
“He’s not exerted; what could cause that?”

“I’m not sure. It might be his heart trying to spread the Blitz; it wouldn’t necessarily raise his blood pressure.”  
“Did you give him too much?” Qrow asked.   
“No, if anything he’ll need more, but that might not be safe if we’re wrong.”  
“And if we’re right?” Winter asked, “What are the risks?”  
“Well, it could be his heart condition worsening or the concussion, I can give him something to try to relax him,” She reached into her bag, pulling out another vial and filling a syringe, shooting it into his arm. She took the stethoscope and checked his heart rate again.

“It’s slowing down.”

Not a second after she had spoken, Boa began to shake and froth at the mouth.

“What’s happening?” Qrow cried, running forward to stand beside Winter.

“I think he’s having a seizure,” Lavender said, grabbing his medical file. “Don’t hold him down it could be dangerous for both of you!”  
She quickly scanned the file, “He doesn’t have a history of epilepsy or any other condition that would explain it.”

“Seizures don’t make people froth at the mouth,” Winter pointed out.  
“What can we do?” Qrow asked.

“I’m not sure, I think we’ll just have to wait it out; it would be too dangerous to try and give him something while he’s like this.”  
The thrashing got worse, until he began to jerk and finally, went still.

The four of them were silent for a long moment, staring at each other in shock. Lavender reached for her stethoscope so quickly it startled Winter. She slipped it into her ears, feeling for a pulse before pressing the ring to his chest.

“I… I-I think he’s dead,” She said softly. She threw the stethoscope aside and climbed up onto the slab and began administering CPR. Winter looked behind her at Ironwood who was frowning at the scene.

“We should get medical,” She said.

“I’m on it,” Qrow volunteered, heading to the door. James stepped up beside Winter, watching the young woman try to revive the man.  
“Anything?” Winter asked.

“No, not yet.” Lavender answered.  
She continued until the escort returned with the warden.

“Damn,” he muttered after checking Boa’s pulse, “Was hoping he’d live out a bit more of his sentence before he kicked it.”

“He’s actually dead?” Qrow asked in surprise.  
“We can have an ME brought in if you insist,” He spoke to Ironwood, “but I think it’s pretty obvious what killed him.”  
Ironwood thought for a moment. “I agree. I can’t imagine anyone will be crying over this. Miss La Rue, would it be too much to ask for you to sign the death certificate?”  
Lavender was staring at the body. Winter walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Lavender? Are you okay?”  
Lavender nodded. “Yes. I just… he’s really dead?”  
“Yes.” Winter said softly, “It’s over.”  
Lavender nodded. “I-I’ll sign it.”  
“Winter, Qrow, make sure miss La Rue returned home safely; I’ll oversee the documentation and burning off the body.”  
“Of course,” Winter nodded. She stayed with Lavender as they wrote out their reports and the Warden copied them.

“One copy stays here, one copy stays with General Ironwood,” The warden explained. “We don’t put our files online; too easy to be hacked these days,”  
He gave the file to Winter and they were escorted out to the car.

“I can take it from here,” Winter said, excusing the guard.

“Yes ma’am.”  
Winter got in the car, and Qrow got in the passenger side, leaving Lavender in the back. They looked at each other, an expression that said, ‘ _there’s no turning back now’_ , and Winter started the car, heading back into the city.

 

 

 

The body was stripped and prepared for cremation in an organised and efficient manner Ironwood couldn’t help but feel proud of. His soldiers were trained well.   
He’d put a lot of thought into Polynya when he’d taken up position as General. It had been unruly chaos with a warden who had answered to no one, using and abusing his power at a whim. The conditions had been torturous enough, he reasoned, he didn’t need a corrupt, power hungry warden tearing them apart.

“General Ironwood?” One of the guards said. “Would you like to do the honours?”  
James stepped up, his hand wrapping around the lever to start the cremation.

Half way down, the lights began to flicker before shutting off.

“It must have been the cold again,” One of the guards said, turning on the high-powered torch on his belt. “The stalactites have been creeping into the power room. We’ll be right back sir.”  
Ironwood nodded, standing back. He waited until the guards had been gone a few minutes before opening the wooden box Boa had been sealed inside, pulling his body from the coffin and dragging him over to an emergency exit, stashing him away.

He pulled out his scroll and sent a message. Immediately the power came back on. Ironwood pulled the small bag from his pocket and slipped it into the coffin, glad to be rid of the teeth Jameson hid insisted would be necessary to sell it. He pulled the lever the rest of the way and the coffin was lurched forward into the flames.

The guards returned a minute later, looking around the room.

“Just a short malfunction sir, we’ll have it looked into.”  
“I’m sure you will. I’d like a moment alone, if you wouldn’t mind.”  
“We’ll be outside if you need us sir.”  
“That won’t be necessary; I know the way out.”  
They nodded and left, closing the door behind them. James gave them another few minutes before returning to the emergency door. Boa’s body was gone. He walked inside, looking up at the ancient, rusty staircase that had been the initial means of transit around Polynya when it had once been an above ground correctional facility.

Instead of heading up the stairs, he made his way around to the door, almost imperceptible to the human eye. He pushed it open and stepped out onto the disused railways.

“How’d it go?” Jameson asked, dropping Boa’s body onto a makeshift train cart.

“Perfectly. Are you sure you’ll be able to make it to the airfield from here?”  
“Positive. And I’ve got my map and tracker if things go wrong. Now run along, you’ve still got a role to play.”  
James checked his watch. They had three hours to meet Karloff.

“I’ll be there,” Jameson said, reading his mind. She turned on the dingy cart, watching it spring to light.

“You’d better,” James muttered, heading back inside.

 

 

Winter and Qrow walked Lavender back into her apartment, looking at each other in silence. Qrow could see the guilt starting to emerge on Winter’s face.

“Are you alright?” Winter asked, sitting down beside Lavender.

“I will be,” She nodded, putting her bag on the ground, pulling out the letters. “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ever lost a patient…”  
“Well, I hope this helps with the healing process,” Winter said, even though it sounded weak in her mind. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to give him the letters.”

“I’ll just tell my mother I did. But I think I’ll be okay. Cyan was always so positive and bright. She would hate to know her death ruined my life. Ugh that sounds so dramatic,”  
“It was a dramatic lost,” Winter said, remembering the day, “But Cyan was an amazing person, and I know she was really proud of you. She didn’t stop bragging for months after you got your medical licence,” Winter smiled, “’The youngest in the hospitals history, a prodigy’,”

Lavender laughed slightly, wiping her eyes. “Yeah, she was definitely the ‘overbearing, loud and proud’ kind of big sister. I miss her a lot, but now that I can think about her without breaking down it’s a lot easier. she’s not really gone until we stop talking about her right?”  
Winter forced a smile and nodded.

"Ugh,” Lavender wiped her eyes. “This isn’t a sad day, this is a good day. Do you guys want some tea?”  
“I’m good,” Qrow said, Winter stepped on his foot. “I’d love some,” He corrected in a slightly strained voice. Lavender disappeared into the kitchen, turning on the pot and getting ready.

Winter took a deep breath and leaned back into the lounge.

“Are you okay?” Qrow asked. Winter nodded. Her scroll vibrated, and she checked it. It was an incoming call. There was no caller ID.

“Qrow,” She said softly. Qrow looked at the scroll.

“I’ve got it,” he said, taking the scroll and stepping outside.

“Hello?” He said, stepping outside into the snow.

“Hello Mr Branwen.” Came the altered, electronic voice.  
“What do you want?” Qrow asked, feeling his anger flare up.

“Less than ten hours until our arranged time, I merely wanted to check that everything was proceeding as planned.”

“Yeah, everything’s coming along perfectly.”  
“Good. I’d hate to see all those poor people in Vale torn apart by those monsters. Your nieces are there, aren’t they?”  
“Stay the fuck away from my nieces.” He hissed.

“I’m not going to hurt them; not if you deliver Mason Boa’s body.”

“We’ve got it, we’ll be there,”  
“Good. Then there will be no need for the Banshee’s to be released into Vale. Then you can go back to playing house with Miss Schnee.”  
Qrow glared at nothing in particular. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

The voice chuckled. “You don’t think this little… domestic bliss of yours is going to last, do you? She’s had a taste of what it’s like to be with a real man; you think she’d settle for someone like you?”  
“Shut the fuck up!” He snapped.

“And General Ironwood certainly hasn’t forgotten about her.”  
Qrow frowned. “What are you talking about?”  
“You’ve probably gathered I have quite the skill with technology. I have a tripwire in the videos; I can tell if they’ve watched, and how often. And since I can’t imagine you’ve been watching a film of the woman you love with another man…” the robotic voice trailed off with the implication hanging in the air. Qrow felt anger welling up inside him until his hands were shaking. He hung up his scroll, throwing it at the building behind him.

_THAT SON OF A BITCH!_

Taking a few minutes to calm down, he headed back inside, determined to put the mission first.   
He could deal with beating the shit out of James afterwards.

 

“Everything alright?” Lavender asked as Qrow took a seat.

“Fine, just the boss checking in on us,” He said, glancing at Winter. She nodded slightly.

Qrow took his cup of tea and drank it, glad it had cooled down enough not to burn his throat.

Winter and Lavender made small talk, Qrow suspected to alleviate her guilt as they finished their drinks. Qrow sat in silence, his leg bouncing slightly. As Lavender took the tea back into the kitchen Winter finally got a chance to talk to Qrow.

“Are you okay?” She asked.   
“Not really.” He answered honestly.

“Has something happened?”  
“No, everything’s fine. We’ll talk about it after okay?”  
Winter nodded, putting up her calm façade as Lavender returned.

“I am so sorry, I completely forgot; I have paperwork that needs to be handed in to the hospital by tomorrow; would it be terribly inconvenient of me to ask you to drop it off on the way to your hotel? My cars completely dead and I don’t have the money for a taxi until I get paid in two days.”  
“Uh, sure,” Winter said.

“Thank you so much, I’ll be right back with them.”  
She ran up stairs and Qrow gave Winter a disbelieving look.

“I’m sorry!” She said in a loud whisper. “We could have traumatised her today, it’s the least we can do.”  
“She’s a nurse, she’s lost people before.”  
“Not the man who murdered her sister!”  
“She doesn’t seem traumatised to me!”  
There was some banging upstairs and they both shut up.

“How much longer do we have?” Qrow asked.

“An hour and a half.”  
“Okay,” He sighed, “Maybe, I can drop the papers off and meet you at the ridge?”  
“Thank you,” Winter leaned forward, kissing him. “I’ll make it up to you.”  
“Yeah?” He asked, kissing her back.

“I promise.” She confirmed softly, kissing him again.

The kiss was broken by another loud noise upstairs.

“She probably hasn’t unpacked the files,” Qrow muttered.

“Come on,” Winter stood, heading for the stairs. “Lavender!” She called from the bottom of the stairs. “Is everything alright?” There was no reply. They shared an uneasy look.

They began up the stairs, stopping on the second floor and looking around. There was a squealing noise from on of the rooms and Winter rushed over to it, her hand on her hilt. She pushed the door open slowly, looking around. She glanced up at Qrow, pressed against the other side of the door frame and nodded. Winter slipped inside.

The room was mostly empty.

“She’s not in here,” Qrow frowned.

“What was that noise?” Winter asked. She turned to head back out into the hall and continue her investigation when Qrow grabbed her wrist.

“Wait.”  
“What?”  
Qrow walked over to a box in the corner, slowly opening it.

Inside was a stuffed monkey. He picked it up and it screamed at him. Qrow cried out in surprise, falling on his ass and shuffling away.

Winter laughed. “Well that solves that mystery.”

“Vey fun-” he cut himself off, dropping the monkey aside. “Holy shit,” He muttered, getting up and kneeling in front of the box.  
“What’s wrong?” Winter asked, walking over. She knelt beside him, looking in the box. “What is this?”  
The box was filled with pictures. Some blurry, some high quality, some close and others far away.   
All of Mason Boa.

“Looks like she’s not as over it as she said,” Qrow muttered.

Winter felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Qrow we have to get out of here.”

Qrow continued to stare at the box, pulling out a small black box. he pressed the button on the side and a slight crackling sounded.

“What’s this-” He jerked back, as the same computerised voice from the phone calls camev through. Qrow suddenly jerked forward, dropping the box and clutching the back of his neck. “Shit!”  
“Qrow!”

Winter looked over at the door as Lavender kicked it shut. She raised the gun in her hand and Winter summoned a glyph between them.

Nothing happened.

Winter looked down at her hands in confusion as her vision began to blur.

“I guess I miscalculated the sleeping drugs,” Lavender sighed, walking over. She shot Qrow again.

“What did you shoot him with?” Winter asked, feeling for the darts in his neck and back and pulling them out.

“Just a tranquilizer.”  
“What… what did you do to me?” She asked, trying to stand as the affects spread through her body. She fell to the floor, groaning.

“I drugged your tea.”  
“But… you drank the… the same tea?”  
“I poisoned the cups, you dumb bitch,” She kicked Winter in the stomach, sending her into the wall. Winter groaned as pain burst in her abdomen.

“You…” She moaned, trying to sit up.  
“Yep,” Lavender kicked her again. Winter cried out in pain.

“Why?! He was-was dying anyway.”  
“Well, by the time I found that out it was too late to turn back wasn’t it?” She knelt down, grapping a fistful of Winter’s hair and raising her head to look up at her.

“If you hadn’t been such a whore, you wouldn’t be in this situation, would you?” She threw her back down to the floor. Her head hit the wood with a loud _smack_.

Everything went dark.

 

 

  
Winter didn’t know how long it was before she woke up. Her head was heavy, and she could feel the dried blood down the side of her face. Her vision cleared enough for her to see she was tied to a chair in a dark room; the only light coming from a bulb hanging above them.

“You’re awake.”  
Winter looked up, Lavender’s figure coming into view as she walked over to the bound woman.

“Where am I?” Winter asked, her voice slurring. The drugs must have still been in her system.

“Emerald harbour. Blackmailed the captain of a transport airship to get us here before your friend’s shitty pirate ship. I seem to have a knack for it.”  
Winter dropped her head back and it hit something.   
“He’s not awake yet.” Lavender walked behind her, and Winter heard her slap Qrow across the face.

“Leave him alone!” Winter snapped.

“Or what?” Lavender asked, walking around, grabbing Winter’s hair again. Winter glared at her and Lavender looked her up and down.

“What the hell did she see in you?” She asked softly.

“Who?”  
“Cyan! Who the hell do you think?!”  
“Sorry,” Winter said sarcastically, “It didn’t occur to me that you were thinking about her when you pulled this bullshit.”  
Lavender slapped her. Winter could taste blood in her mouth.

“Cyan is gone. She’s gone! She doesn’t think anything! This isn’t about her, it’s about me. She adored you, she followed you around like a lovesick puppy and just… forgot me! I wasn’t good enough to be around her now that Winter fucking Schnee was on the scene. My mother always liked her better, you see,” She began to monologue. “‘ _She looks so much like her father’_. She wasn’t even my father’s daughter and he loved her more. Then she died and I thought the only silver lining would be that I wasn’t in her shadow; maybe I could have a real relationship with them, but it drove my mother insane! They didn’t care about me. But Cyan did. Then suddenly nothing I did mattered. Because of you. You were born with everything and you took the only think I had! And now she’s gone! This is about me.”  
Lavender sat in her chair, breathing heavily. “When I saw you that night in the hospital, that’s when it all happened. I knew what I had to do.”  
Winter stared up at her. “You were never going to let us live, were you?”  
“Maybe. But probably not. Depends on whether or not your little team brings me Mason’s dead body. I’m not an idiot; I know you drugged him.”  
“How did hide your trace from Jameson?”  
“That was the easy part.” Lavender said, seeming to calm down. “My semblance. I could copy someone else’s based on physical contact. I gave her my aura, I took her semblance.”  
“That’s why she healed so quickly,” Winter put it together.  
“Yep. I was in the hospital, looking for my sister when I saw her, that was the first time the idea came into my head. I’ve been planning it ever since. I’ve got to admit; I’m impressed you managed to come up with a plan so quickly.”

“Thanks.” Winter muttered. “How did you get the Grimm to the city?”  
Lavender smiled. “I found the cages Torchwick’s men used to transport them in mountain Glen.”  
“You were never in Vacuo,” Winter said softly in realisation.  
“Nope. Spent a few months in Oak Hollow, studying them. They don’t come out in the daytime. It took a long time, but I managed to get a few in there, and men are so goddamn easy to manipulate. Take them to bed and they’ll do anything you ask. I bet you could have ruled Atlas with a body like that,” She gestured up and down Winter with the knife in her hand. Winter wasn’t amused.

“I can see why Ironwood would risk everything for a night with you,” Lavender continued. “Can I ask,” She crouched down in front of Winter, “Was that the only time it happened? Cus I’ve heard of teachers and headmasters and superior officers having affairs with teenagers they’ve groomed or the kids of those rich families they’ve gotta deal with all the time, and, well, you fit into both of those.

Winter glared at her for a minute. Lavender slapped her again, quick as a flash. Blood trickled from Winter’s mouth.

“I asked you a question.”  
“Yes,” Winter said softly, revealing blood covered teeth, “That was the only time it happened.”

“Huh. Lucky me.” She sat back down.

Winter spat blood out of her mouth. “How did you fake the phone call at your house?”  
“I pre-recorded a lot of possible responses. I had one lot ready for if you answered, another if he answered. I hoped he would; I really hoped this whole thing would do more damage to your relationship.”  
Qrow began to wake up, moaning behind Winter. She turned as much as she could to see him.

“Wha… what happened?” he muttered, blinking awake.

“Qrow? Are you okay?” Winter asked.

“Yeah, you?”  
“I’m alright,”  
“Well this is very touching,” Lavender said sarcastically, standing and sheathing her knife, “but I’m afraid we’ve got plans.”

 

 

“Something feels off,” Jameson said, unloading the metal box containing Boa from the airship.  
“We’re about to meet someone with the ability to capture the deadliest Grimm ever encountered, hide a trace from someone who’s semblance is electronic tracking and the balls to blackmail two of the deadliest people in Atlas,” Karloff summarised, leaning on the box, “I’d be worried if something didn’t.”

“Um, guys,” Boa called, “are we there?”  
“Shut up!” Jameson and Karloff cried in unison.

“So where are we supposed to meet this psycho?” Jameson asked, securing the box to the cart and closing the hatch.

“Dunno; guess we should just stand out in the open and hope they find us.”  
“That’s it?” Jameson asked. “You want to just… wing it?!”  
“Jeez, when did you get so high strung?”  
“Since our friend’s career and our freedom is at risk. Our lives could be over if anyone finds out about this.”  
“Well we’ve already done it, so calm the hell down. Let’s just finish it.”  
“He’s right,” Ironwood said, walking up to them, “We’ve come this far.”  
“Alright,” Jameson sighed. “Where are Qrow and Winter meeting us?”

Karloff pulled out his scroll and checked the message he had received from Qrow right before they were supposed to meet at the landing strip.

“Just says the North-West warehouse near the water,”  
“This is the only warehouse around here,” Jameson said, looking at the tall building a hundred or so metres away.

“Let’s go then,” Karloff pushed the cart and Jameson pushed, Ironwood constantly scanning the area, his gun held low at his hip.

They made it to the door without any disturbance and Jameson and Ironwood stepped inside, checking the area.

“Clear,” Ironwood called, and Karloff pushed in the cart. He stood guard as the other two cleared the rest of the almost empty warehouse.

“Office is empty,” Ironwood confirmed, stepping back out into the main area.

“What do you think is in that box?” Jameson asked as they approached a large box covered in an old, dusty sheet.

“This was an old goods trading dock, so it’s probably just a shipping container.” Ironwood guess, gripped the bottom of the sheet, lifting it up.

Immediately the entire warehouse was filled with shrill screaming. Jameson, Ironwood and Karloff dropped to their knees.

As the sheet dropped and blocked out the light, the screaming stopped.

Ironwood looked over at Jameson, who was staring at the box in horror.

“We need to get out of here,” he said, grabbing her and pulling her to her feet.

Jameson stumbled after him. Karloff pulled himself up, leaning heavily on Boa’s box.

Ironwood grabbed the doorhandle and turned.

Nothing happened.

“I’m afraid that way’s no good.”  
Ironwood turned around. Standing by the only other door leading outside was a young woman.

“Lavender?” Jameson asked, shock pulsing through her.

Lavender walked in from the dark hall near the opposite wall. She hit the lights, revealing a bloody and bruised Qrow and Winter tied up and slumped by the wall.

“I believe you have something for me.” She called.

Ironwood got over his shock and turned to his two former specialists.

“Bring him over.”  
They pushed him over, stopping halfway to Lavender.

“I take it this is all in revenge for your sister?” Ironwood said, starting to walk closer.

“Of course, it is.” Lavender snapped. She pulled out a gun. Pointing it at Qrow and Winter’s unconscious bodies. “That’s close enough. All of you, drop your weapons.”

Ironwood dropped his gun to the ground, kicking it away. Jameson did the same with her daggers, and Karloff gave up his rifles and gloves.

“Good. Open the box.”  
Karloff and Jameson pulled off the top, dragging Boa out and over to her. They shared a worried glance.

“He’s still alive,” Lavender said, annoyed.

“We’ll kill him now,” Jameson offered.   
“Will you? Okay then. Bash his head into the ground.”  
Jameson glanced at Ironwood, then back at Lavender.   
“Now.”  
“Just do it,” Boa muttered.   
“Shut the fuck up!”  
Jameson crouched behind Boa, grabbing the back of his head.

“Wait,” Ironwood said, “I want proof you have the video.”  
Lavender reached into her pocket, pulling out a scroll and throwing it to him. “You can tell if it’s been copied, right?”  
Ironwood passed it to Jameson who scanned it with her semblance.    
“It hasn’t,” She confirmed, “This was the scroll the emails came from.”  
“See?” Lavender said, “Now, kill him or I’ll put two bullets in your agents and release a hoard of Grimm in here.”  
“You do that you’ll die.”  
“That’s just a risk I’m willing to take!” She gestured grandly, and Ironwood finally saw how unhinged she had become.

“Grab the gun,” Ironwood said, “Shoot him in the head.”  
Jameson looked at Lavender again, and she gestured for her to pick up Ironwood’s gun. Jameson did as she was told, picking it up and walking back to Boa, pointing it to the back of his head.

“You have five seconds to pull the trigger. Five, four, three,”

Karloff grabbed the gun from Jameson, aiming at the back of Boa’s head and fired.  
A shot rang out, and Mason’s body fell to the floor in a pink mist.

“There,” Lavender sighed, “was that so hard?”  
Jameson was staring in shock and Karloff was breathing heavily. He dropped the gun by Boa’s body, stepping back and taking Jameson with him.

“Wonderful,” Lavender said, deliriously happy and grinning manically. “You can take them now.”  
Karloff lifted Qrow and Ironwood carried a slowly wakening Winter back to the cart. Jameson pulled off the box and they rested them own. James turned back to Lavender, who was staring at the body.

“What are you going to do with the Grimm?” He asked, eyeing the box off to the side.

“I’ll blow it up,” She said, holding up a sensor in her hand. He took a subconscious step back.

“You have five minutes to get out of here.”  
James nodded, signalling for the other to get Qrow and Winter out of there.

“What?” She snapped, noticing he was still there.

“This seems too easy,”  
“It doesn’t have to be complicated.”

“I’m afraid it does.”  
Two shots rang out in the warehouse. Lavender cried out in pain, clutching her stomach as her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

“What the fuck!” She shrieked.

Mason fired again, the shot landing in Lavender’s shoulders.

“Stop it!” She screamed, blood pouring from her mouth.

Jameson and Karloff looked at each other and made a dash for their weapons, getting into a fighting stance.

James and Lavender’s eyes fell to the remote and both made a dive for it. James caught it in his hand, but as Lavender’s hand closed around him the button receded and a loud bang sounded as the cage opened.

Jameson’s voice sounded through the warehouse. “Run!”

Ironwood grabbed Boa and ran to the cart. Jameson kicked at the door, pushing against it and trying to undo whatever locks she’d placed on it. Karloff throw his shoulder into it, but it didn’t so much as budge.

The Grimm flooded out of the cage. They were as horrific as they remembered, and Karloff and Jameson were brought to tears as their angry shrieks filled the warehouse.

“Oh, god,” Jameson muttered, “we’re going to die,”  
The Grimm crawled over in a menacing wave. Karloff closed his eyes and Jameson fell into a ball against the door as they lunged.

The cry of a deathstalker silenced the Banshees, and the three looked up in shock to see a giant scorpion holding back the Banshees.

Jameson looked aside to see Winter, barely able to sit up, summoning the beast.

“Open the door!” She screamed. Jameson and Ironwood worked on the door, as Karloff used his guns and semblance to keep the Banshee’s that slipped through at bay.

With a triumphant burst the door flew off and Ironwood grabbed Qrow, dragging him outside. Jameson helped Winter to her feet and she locked the door with her glyph after Boa fell through.

The six lay on the cold concrete, staring in shock as the Grimm tried to claw through the glyph.

“I don’t know how long I can keep it up,” Winter said weakly, sweat slipping down her brow as she put all her strength into keeping the door barricaded.

“We need to get to the ship!” Karloff yelled over the screaming.

“We need to kill them!” Boa said, “Winter, can you cover me until I find the remote?”  
“What?” Winter cried, “No, if you go in there you’ll die!”  
“I’m dead anyway,” he said calmy, with a smile, “At least this way I can do some good right?”  
Winter hesitated, staring up at him. He smiled, completely at peace with his decision, and for a second he reminded her of the man he used to be. Winter nodded slightly, then summoned a flock of Nevermore’s, sending them into the door. Boa took off, using the whirlpool of birds to keep the Banshee’s away.

But surely enough, the birds began to waver, slowly disappearing as Winter grew weaker and the Banshee’s tore them apart.

He burst through the sea of black and white and red and ran towards Lavender’s body. She’d only made it a few metres before blood loss and the Banshees had taken her. He could see slashes on her back where the claws had torn through.

Sliding to a stop at her body Mason began frisking her for the other detonator. He felt it on her jacket pocket and reached to grab it, only to be tackled aside by a banshee. He kicked it off, reaching for the remote. He knocked it out of the pocket, only to be dragged away, a set of long claws sinking all the way through his ankle.

His loud scream attracted the Grimm away from the nevermores and they ran for him. Boa grabbed Lavender’s gun and shot the Grimm in the face, lurching forward and finally grabbing the remote.

The next second seemed to last forever.

A Grimm bounded towards him, their screams filling the air.

In their screams he heard the last cries of the people he had once cared so much about.

_He could see Cyan’s bright smile, so contagious, so sweet._

_He could hear Yelaina’s laugh, how she always snorted after he’d tell a dirty joke, earning them a glare from Winter and a snicker from Aki._

_Akihito. He’d always been so kind and patient. Mason had had such a crush on him at the academy._

_“I’m sorry.”  
_The last sound he ever heard was the sound of the bomb, tearing through the room.

 

 

 

The blast had jostled the ship as they took off. Winter felt her Nevermore’s disappear and it took all her strength not to black out again.

“You okay?” Jameson asked, gripping Winter’s arm as the ship settled.

Winter nodded, breathing heavily. In seconds, she was unconscious, resting her head against Qrow.

 

Qrow woke up as a stream of light settled over his face. He looked around, taking in his surroundings.

“What… what’s going on?” He asked, trying to sit up. He felt something on his shoulder and looked down.   
Winter looked like hell. She was covered in dirt and scratches with a cut on her lip and blood dried on the side of her face.

“Winter? Winter?” He shook her, panic spreading through him.

“She’s fine,” Jameson said, coming in and sitting across from them. “Just exhausted. We had a hell of a fight down there.”  
“It’s over?” he asked.

“Yeah. We checked you over; you were filled with enough tranquilizer to take down a horse; it’s a miracle you’re not dead.”  
Qrow leaned back against the side of the ship, the events coming back to him.

“Lavender…”  
“Yeah. She’s dead. So is Boa. He held of the Grimm and blew up the harbour. He saved a lot of lives,” She added softly.

“She doesn’t look so good,” He muttered, brushing Winter’s bangs out of her face.   
“Neither do you.” Jameson held out a bottle of water. “We’ll get you checked up when we get to Beacon.”  
“How much longer we got?”  
“An hour, maybe two. Karloff’s ship is fucking fast.” She stood, “I suggest you try and get some rest you’ll need it,”  
Qrow nodded and she left. He wrapped his arm around Winter, resting her across his lap and stroking her hair until he passed out again, the weight of the world off his shoulders.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is just one chapter left guys, and It will be a shorter chapter, just an epilogue.   
> I hope you can take a moment to let me know what you thought, what you'd like to be included in the epilogue and if you liked the story overall.
> 
>  
> 
> Masenlakain: I have a lot of projects lined up and I did plan to leave the story as it is, so if I do it won't be for a fair while. that being said, its not off the table. thank you for your amazing feedback and I'm glad you liked the story


	8. Chapter 8

Neither Qrow or Winter woke again until the ship landed in a field outside Vale, frequented by the shady pilot’s of the world. Karloff paid off the crew, and landed just long enough for Jameson, Qrow, Winter and Ironwood to depart.

“I can’t thank you enough for this,” Ironwood said as the other’s piled into a car Karloff had prepared earlier.

“No offense sir, but I didn’t do it for you; I did it so my mate wouldn’t have her sex tape broadcast to the fuckin’ world.”  
“That’s fair. Thank you anyway.” Ironwood said before making his way to the car.  
“Hey Jimmy!” Karloff called.

Ironwood turned back to him.

“Qrow’s my mate too. If ya know what’s good for ya, I suggest you stay away from her.”  
With that, he walked back into his ship, closing the hatch behind him.

 

 

Winter struggled to keep her eyes open as they drove back to the city.

“Hey, you okay?”  
Winter looked up at Qrow, giving him a small, reassuring smile, “I’m okay.” She said softly. “You?”  
“I’m alright. Be a lot better when the drugs clear off.”  
“How’s your head?”  
“Haven’t had any complaints.”  
She smacked his head and he chuckled. “It’s fine. I’m not the one bleeding.”  
“I’m alright. I’ll be better once we’re back home.”  
“I can’t wait to be back in the apartment,” Qrow muttered, wrapping his arms around her.

“Qrow?”  
“Yes?”  
“I think we should move in together.”  
Qrow pulled back and looked down at her. “Are you sure?”  
Winter nodded. Qrow grinned, kissing her.  
“Okay.”  
“Okay,” Winter smiled back, hugging him.

 

 

Winter and Qrow were checked over at the Beacon hospital wing, where Jameson ordered just about every take-out she could for them for lunch. As the day came to a close, feeling much longer than it was, the three had found themselves sitting on a Beacon balcony, watching the students return from the Arena.

“Is your brother pissed you missed his round?” Qrow asked Jameson, drinking his sixth cup of coffee.

“Nah, my parents would have recorded it. He’ll be fine as long as I take him to the go-carts this weekend. What about your nieces?”  
“They know I’m working. Besides, Yang made it to the singles rounds this weekend; I’ll be there for that.”  
“Cool. Morgan got his ass kicked in the doubles, but I don’t think he was in it to win.”

“Well, he’ll have another chance in his final year, right?” Winter said, looking down at a team of kids messing around in the courtyard.

“Yeah. Wow, it feels like forever since we were in the Vytal tournament.” Jameson said, sitting up on the railing. “I got absolutely demolished in the singles round.”  
“We made it to the finals the second time,” Qrow said, “Summer even made it to the top six.”  
“Nice. Well, I’m gonna head home and stare at the ceiling for a few hours. Gotta get all my freaking out over before I see my brother.”  
“See ya around,” Qrow chuckled.

“Thank you,” Winter said, “We couldn’t have done this without you.”  
“No you couldn’t,” She finger gunned as she walked back inside, “and don’t you forget it Schnee.”  
Winter smiled, turning back to the view of the courtyard.

“So,” Qrow said, wrapping his arm around her waist, “How are you feeling?”  
“Okay. Mostly. I… I didn’t think it would be her.”  
“Yeah, me neither. I guess you can only lose so much before you snap. How do you think she got our details without hacking into the military?”  
“Her parents would have received Cyan’s scroll after her death. If Lavender knew her password she would have had access to everything Cyan had.”  
“And I gave Cyan my number in Vacuo,” Qrow finished.

“She spent the whole eight months planning this, and she didn’t even live to see Mason die,”  
“He died to protect us and countless others. I guess that counts for something.”  
“I guess.”  
“And no one is ever going to know.”  
“I suppose he’s paid for his crime.”  
Qrow took Winter’s hand in his. “Do you think he was a bad person?”  
Winter shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. In Oak Hollow… maybe. But overall, I… I don’t know if I still want to see the best in him or if it’s how I really feel but… no. I don’t think he was.”  
“Well it’s over now. We can go back to how things were.”  
“Are you okay with that?”  
Qrow frowned. “What do you mean?”  
Winter turned to face him, resting her hip on the railing. “After… the video. Are you okay? With us?”  
“Of course I am. I love you; I’m not gonna walk away because of something that happened before we were together.”  
Winter nodded, letting out a slight, relieved sigh.

Qrow kissed her forehead.

“I love you,”  
“I love you too.”  
“Come on, let’s go home.”

“Actually,” Qrow said, “there’s something I have to do first. I’ll meet you at the stairs in ten minutes?”  
“Okay,” Winter said, kissing him again. Qrow walked off, and Winter leaned back against the railing. She took a deep breath and turned back to look over the courtyard.

 _I can’t believe we got away with it_.

“Don’t jump.”  
Winter turned, seeing professor Goodwitch walking over to her.

“Thanks for the tip,” Winter said, crossing her arms loosely across her chest, “but I think I’ve covered my quota for ‘stupid decisions’ for a lifetime.”  
“About that,” Glynda stopped a few metres away from her, “I wanted to apologise for my… crass comments the other day. It was said in anger and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”  
“It’s fine,” Winter assured her, “It was hardly out of line.” She hesitated before adding. “I… I didn’t know he was involved with anyone when we…”  
“I figured. It doesn’t matter now; it’s over.”  
“Still, I’m sorry.”  
“You’re forgiven. James, however, is not,” Glynda crossed her arms, walking to stand beside Winter and look out at the courtyard. After a minute she glanced over at Winter.

“Are you okay?”  
“I’m fine. Just a bit of a headache.”  
“I didn’t mean today.”  
Winter looked at her and understood what she meant. “I am. I don’t… I don’t think we could have any kind of relationship now, which I admit does hurts. I really looked up to him.”  
“I know. He did think highly of you, not that that’s much of a comfort.”  
“Not really,” Winter sighed. Glynda put a hand on her shoulder, and Winter looked up in surprise.

“Men are stupid. But you’ve got a… less stupid one. You’re good for him. If either of you do anything that messes up what you have and turns you into the squabbling children you were before, I will throw both of you from Beacon tower.”  
Winter laughed softly, “I promise; I have no intentions of letting him go.”  
“Good. Now go home, you look like hell,” Glynda walked back inside. After a minute of staring out at the sky, Winter headed down to meet Qrow at the stairs.

 

 

 

Qrow wasn’t sure what he was going to say, but he knew he had to say it.

Ironwood was in a spare office, staring out at the window.

“You look like shit!” Qrow called, walking down the stairs towards him. Ironwood turned and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.  
“I thought you’d gone home.”  
“Heading out in a minute. Thought we should talk.”  
Ironwood sighed, taking a seat at the desk and facing him. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot to say.”  
“Yeah I do. Give me your scroll.”  
“Excuse me?”  
“You heard me.”  
Ironwood didn’t move for a moment, before pulling out his scroll and handing it to Qrow. Qrow threw it to the ground, swinging out his scythe and sending it through the middle.

“What the hell Qrow?!” Ironwood cried, jumping to his feet.

“Didn’t want you watching the video _again_ , Jimmy,”  
Ironwood glared at him. “The video is on my email, not my scroll.”  
“I know.”  
Ironwood huffed. “I understand you’re angry, but that doesn’t give you the right to destroy military issued property.”

Qrow reached over the desk, gripping him by the collar.  
“I didn’t say anything earlier because I wanted to let Winter handle it, but I’m done. You ever so much as fucking look at her without her permission and I’ll fly to Atlas and rip your other fucking arm and leg off. Am I clear?”  
“Crystal,”  
“Good,” Qrow hit him hard across the face, and he fell to the ground behind the desk. “I’m glad we understand each other.”

Qrow walked out into the hallway. He was passing the stairs to the ground floor when he saw Glynda.  
“Hey!” He called, running up to catch her.

“What is it now Qrow?” She asked.

“Just thought you’d like to know Ironwood kissed Winter after the memorial ceremony three days after they slept together.”

Glynda stopped walking, her entire body going stiff with anger, and Qrow got the hell out of there.

 

 

 

Winter woke up the next morning to the sound of something crinkling beside her. Rolling over, she saw Qrow, sitting up and bed and eating the chocolate she had bought him.  
“What are you doing?” She muttered, rubbing her eyes.

“Eating.”  
“You’re having chocolate for breakfast?”  
Qrow looking back and forth between her and the chocolate. He broke off a line, put it in his teeth and leaning over to her. Winter rolled her eyes, smiling, and bit off the end.

“We just made a real life jail break and you’re going to get on my case about having chocolate for breakfast?”  
“It’s not good for you.”  
“I’ve had this chocolate for a week and haven’t had any of it I really don’t care if it’s good for me.”  
He leaned over, kissing her. His lips tasted like mint.

“Good morning,” She smiled.

“Good morning. Coffee?”  
“I’ll get it,” She kissed him again and got out of bed, making their coffee and some toast. When she came back into the bedroom he was on his scroll.

“Who was that?” Winter asked.

“Yang. She wanted to make sure I’d be at her round. She made it to the singles round; pretty impressive.”  
“Think she’ll make it to the top six?” Winter asked, sitting facing him and crossing her legs, letting the coffee wake her up.

“If she’s very lucky.”  
“Who do you think will win this year?”  
“Considering I’ve only seen a few of the team’s rounds I’m probably not qualified to take a guess,”  
“I imagine Pyrrha Nikos would be a frontrunner. I’ve seen her fight before; she’s amazing.”  
“Yeah,” Qrow sighed.

“Is something wrong?”  
Qrow stared at his coffee, before looking up with a reassuring smile, “No, everything’s fine.”  
Winter smiled back, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes. She put her coffee cup on the bedside table. “What was the call about? In Atlas?”  
“Huh?”  
“At Lavender’s apartment.

Qrow put the box on the ground, lying down and wrapping his arms around her. He debated whether or not her should tell her about the actual contents of the call.

Finally, the ‘not’ won out.

“Win?”  
“Yes?” She asked, looking up at him.

“What’s your favourite fairytale?”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it! THank you to everyone who commented, it means so much to me and i hope you liked the story.  
> Let me know what you guys think? Do others want a sequel further down the line?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I hope you like the story, let me know if you do. Reviews keep the chapters coming and make me extremely happy.


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